By Victoria John
A 22-year-old white South African woman was recently granted permission to stay in Ireland after claiming she was at risk in her home country because of racial discrimination.
Colin Wrafter, the Irish ambassador in South Africa, said that Dianne Jefferson was only allowed to stay in the country because she is married to an Irish citizen.
Jefferson launched a legal bid in Dublin's High Court to be allowed to remain in the country after her application for a residents' card was refused last month.
Her lawyer, Owen Swaine, played down the references to race in his client's case, saying the sentence in the affidavit regarding racial discrimination was the "only reference to race or crime".
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The lawyer said his client had no family left in South Africa - her father is married to an Irish woman and has another daughter who is an Irish citizen.
Jefferson said: "I believe the media spun my case out of control. I have very fond memories of growing up in South Africa. I am married to an Irish citizen and I was trying to get a five-year visa, which I now have.
"If I was to be deported, which I have not been, it would have been very hard for me to survive on my own in a country I left at a very young age."
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