SXMElections.com

PHILIPSBURG--The Court of First Instance ruled against a decision of the Ministry of Justice to deny a young girl re-entry into St. Maarten on her return from medical treatment in the Dominican Republic.

The 18-year-old girl has a Dominicano mother and a St. Maarten father who recognised her. The girl has been residing with her mother and father in St. Maarten since March 2010. Her father has Dutch nationality and her mother has a permanent residence permit.

Attempts to have the girl registered at the Civil Registry in March 2011 failed because there were problems concerning the authenticity of her birth certificate and those of two of her brothers. This led the Ministry of Justice to revoke a previous decision to declare the Ordinance Admission and Expulsion LTU inapplicable in the girl's case.

The girl has medical problems concerning a tumour in her face that requires urgent medical attention. Admission into a hospital in the Dominican Republic had been arranged and approved by Social and Health Care Insurance SZV, with the date of admission into the hospital set for December 21, 2014.

A request to grant the girl a temporary residence permit based on medical and humanitarian grounds was submitted with the authorities on November 19, 2014, as well as requests for a return visa or an exception to the rule that applicants for permits must await the outcome of their requests while residing abroad.

According to the Ministry, the girl had to await her application outside St. Maarten because she had been residing here without a title, it was stated in a decision of November 25, 2014.

The girl's lawyers had filed an injunction against this decision, which was heard by the Court on December 9, 2014. During the hearing, the defence stated that the Ministry's decision was "extremely harsh," not only concerning the medical urgency of their client's case, but also because the Ministry's decision would infringe on her family life.

In its decision of December 16, 2014, which was not made public until this week, the Court did not question the urgency of the girl's medical condition. The judge established that the initial permit to grant the girl's residency for her to be reunited with her family in Simpson Bay had not expired, but merely had been put into question due to irregularities concerning her birth certificate.

However, the Court said these irregularities could not point only at malpractice by the applicant, but also could be due to a malfunction of the Civil Registry in the Dominican Republic.

Daughter and father had agreed to DNA testing to establish parenthood irrevocably, it was added. However, a lack of funds had prevented testing. If paternity were proven the girl in principle would be entitled to reside here, her defence had stated.

The Court ordered the Justice Ministry to grant the girl a return visa on her return to St. Maarten from medical treatment in the Dominican Republic. It was specifically added that no rights could be attached to the visa.

The Ministry was ordered not to expel the girl for a period of six months to enable her to carry out DNA testing to establish parenthood. She would lose any rights of residency if another man proved to be her father, it was added.

"Because I was busy arranging residency for my client, but the procedure was not finalised yet, I had filed a special request with Immigration and Naturalisation Service IND to make a special exception," attorney Remco Stomp said.

He called the IND decision "controversial" and said it had led to a "Catch-22 situation" for his client. "After the rejection, I immediately filed an injunction and the judge agreed with me and ordered issuance of a return permit. As far as I know, this case is without precedent and is also of interest from a humanitarian perspective. Obvious injustice has been rectified through the intervention of a judge," Stomp said.