Moisei & Efremov v Refugee Appeals Tribunal

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Court: High Court
• Judge: Mr Justice Michael Peart
• Judgment Date: 14 July 2004
• Neutral Citation: [2004] IEHC 153
• Date: 14 July 2004
• Docket Number: Hc 259/04

[2004] IEHC 153

THE HIGH COURT

Michael Peart

Hc 259/04

Record Number: No.391 JR/2003

MOISEI & EFREMOV v. REFUGEE APPEALS TRIBUNAL

JUDICIAL REVIEW

Between:

Dumitru Moisei and Valentina Efremov

Appellants

And

Jim Nicholson sitting as The Refugee Appeals Tribunal

Respondent

Citations:

REFUGEE ACT 1996 S13

Abstract:

Immigration - Asylum - Judicial review -Fear of persecution - Whether the respondent’s decision was flawed, irrational and/or unreasonable.

Facts: The applicants were Moldovan who applied for asylum in this State. The second named applicant’s fear of persecution arose solely out of the first named applicant’s fear, which largely resulted from his involvement in the military reserves. The applicants sought leave to seek certain orders by way of judicial review arising out of the respondent’s decision to refuse the applicants’ appeals. The challenge was based solely on a finding contained in the respondent’s decision that the applicant failed to seek assistance from certain non-governmental agencies in Moldova. Specifically, the applicants maintained that the decision was flawed because the respondent had decided that the applicant ought to have sought assistance from organisations whose very existence was unknown to the applicant.

Held by Peart J. in refusing the leave application: That the decision was required to be read as a whole, rather than examining one sentence in isolation. The grounds contended for finding the Decision of the Tribunal invalid were not arguable or weighty, they were trivial in the sense that the submission was based on a small part of the Decision. In any event, the failure of the applicant to seek assistance from non-governmental agencies was only one of a number of things, which the Tribunal considered the applicant could have done to alleviate his fear.

Reporter: L.O’S.

Mr Justice Michael Peart

1 This is an application for leave to seek certain Orders by way of Judicial Review arising out of the Decisions of the Respondent to refuse the applicants” appeal against the Recommendations in respect of each applicant that they should not be declared to be refugees.

2 The applicants are Moldovan and arrived in this country on the 19^th June 2002, whereupon they made applications for asylum. They each completed the usual questionnaire and were each interviewed separately and by different interviewers, but on the same day. It appears from the Questionnaires and the interviews that the second named applicant's fear of persecution arises solely out of the first named applicant's fear, which largely results from his involvement in the military reserves during what is described as the war in the Trans Nestorian Region in 1992. The first named applicant states that he was in the reserves during that conflict and "dealt with weapons together with the other guys." He says that later these weapons were handed over to the military unit. However, in his questionnaire he states that"in 1999 one very influential bandit was shot dead and after this all troubles began. They say that he was killed with one of our guns. Then communists began to persecute me, and asked me where I was during the conflict." It appears from what the applicant stated that this person was killed with a bullet fired from one of the weapons which had been stolen from the military unit to which the applicant belonged and to which the guns had been handed over. It was suggested that the applicant was linked to that weapon and may have been involved in the murder. He was questioned by the police about the theft of weapons in 1992 and released, but that during the questioning they were very aggressive towards him and he was threatened..

3 Some days later it appears that some people called to his house and they also threatened him that if he did not tell them about the sale of these weapons things would be worse, and that he was beaten badly by them in his house and was hospitalised. He says that they threatened to abduct his son also. He says that when in hospital he made a complaint to the police, but that the same people came to the hospital shortly after that and told him to withdraw his statement to the police, and that these people were connected to the police. He says that he fears persecution from what are described as "bandits" as well as from the communists, who are the party in power. When asked if he reported these threats to the authorities, he said that he did not because "they are connected with the bandits and I was scared.".

4 The challenge to the Decision of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal is based...