R.A. v Refugee Appeals Tribunal

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: Mr. Justice Gerard Hogan
• Judgment Date: 15 November 2017
• Neutral Citation: [2017] IECA 297
• Date: 15 November 2017
• Court: Court of Appeal (Ireland)
• Docket Number: Neural Citation Number: [2017] IECA 297 No. 2016 288

BETWEEN/

R.A.

APPLICANT/APPELLANT

AND

REFUGEE APPEALS TRIBUNAL, MINISTER FOR JUSTICE AND EQUALITY, ATTORNEY GENERAL

AND

IRELAND

RESPONDENTS/RESPONDENTS

[2017] IECA 297

Hogan J.

Finlay Geoghegan J.

Irvine J.

Hogan J.

Neural Citation Number: [2017] IECA 297

No. 2016 288

THE COURT OF APPEAL

Administrative & constitutional law – Judicial review – Refugee status – Refusal of status – Point of law - European Communities (Eligibility for Protection) Regulations 2006

Facts: The applicant had applied for refugee status following arrival in the State. He was a national of the Ivory Coast and claimed he had been forced to flee following the outbreak of civil war. His claim was refused by the Refugee Appeals Tribunal, and a subsequent application for judicial review was dismissed. He now sought to appeal on a point of law regarding the discussion of the country of origin information where that information was not explicitly rejected.

Held by Mr Justice Hogan, that the appeal would be allowed. Whilst the European Communities (Eligibility for Protection) Regulations 2006 did not require a consultation of country of origin information in every case, such information was to be considered where it was relevant to findings on credibility. Failure to do so in this case meant the decision was flawed and an order of certiorari would be granted.

JUDGMENT of Mr. Justice Gerard Hogan delivered on the 15th day of November 2017

1 This is an appeal taken by the applicant from a decision of the High Court (Humphreys J.) delivered on 4th November 2015 which rejected the applicant's application for judicial review of a decision of the Refugee Appeal Tribunal dated 25th November 2011: see RA v. Refugee Appeals Tribunal (No.1) [2015] IEHC 686. In a subsequent judgment delivered on 21st December 2015, Humphreys J. granted the applicant the requisite certificate for leave to appeal to this Court pursuant to s. 5(6)(a) of the Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Act 2000 (as substituted by s. 34 of the Employment Permit (Amendment) Act 2014): see RA v. Refugee Appeals Tribunal (No.2) [2015] IEHC 830.

2 The certified point of law was in the following terms:

‘Whether an asylum decision maker is obliged to engage in a narrative discussion of country of origin information in a case where such information is not being positively rejected (in the sense that the decision is positively inconsistent with such information, as opposed to simply that the information is not considered to be relevant, necessary for the decision or sufficiently supportive of the claim made) including where the credibility of the applicant is being rejected generally.’

3 Before considering any of these legal issues, it is first necessary to examine the factual background to these proceedings.

4 On the 12th May 2011 the applicant, Mr. A., arrived in Ireland and immediately claimed asylum. His case was that he had previously been the leader of the youth section in his own local area of the Ivorian Popular Front in the Ivory Coast (‘Front Populaire Ivoirien’)(‘FPI’) and that he had been forced to flee the country in May 2011 after the outbreak of extensive civil conflict.

5 The first and second rounds of the Ivoirian Presidential election were held in October and November 2010. According to the country of origin (‘COI’) information supplied by the UNHCR and exhibited by the applicant (Ref World, ‘Gbagbo Supporters Tortured, Killed in Abidijan’ dated 2nd June 2011), the outcome of these elections was disputed. Eventually, the previous incumbent, President Laurent Gbagbo (the leader of the FPI), was ousted from power and replaced by President Alassane Ouattara in April 2011. Following the arrest of Gbagbo and his indictment before the International Criminal Court, the FPI announced a boycott of the parliamentary elections which were scheduled for the following November.

6 According to the COI reports, Gbagbo supporters had been targeted by Ouattra supporters after the latter had come to power. Killings (including many summary executions), torture and the torching of buildings were all reported by human rights observers in the weeks that followed President Gbagbo's arrest on 11th April 2011. This is also borne out by the COI information utilised by ORAC in considering the present application. Thus, for example, a report in The Daily Telegraph of 19 April 2011 (‘Ivory Coast: Laurent Gbagbo general betrayed by lover’) reported that ‘pro-Gbagbo fighters are said to fear that they will be tortured or murdered if they surrender.’ An Amnesty International Report dated May 2011 provided a contemporary account of wanton killings by both forces, the indiscriminate use of live ammunition and mortar shelling to suppress street protests, extra-judicial killings and summary executions.

7 Mr. A.'s case is that on that day ( i.e., 11th April 2011) he went to work on that morning in Abobo (a northern suburb of the capital, Abidjan), but he was informed by his neighbours that his house had been burnt down. He then said that he was first arrested as an FPI supporter, but that he was later released as Ouattra supporters feared that army units loyal to Gbabgo might return. Mr. A. then says he went into hiding, staying at the house of an uncle. His uncle then paid for him to take a flight out from Abidjan and that Mr. A. arrived here on 12th May 2011, having travelled first by plane to Germany.

8 Mr. A.'s case was first considered by the Office of the Refugee Appeals Commissioner (‘ORAC’). While in a decision dated 1st July 2011 the ORAC found as a fact that Mr. A. was from Abobo, it also found against the applicant's principal claims due to credibility issues. The ORAC found that he could not, for example, name prominent members of the FPI nor any of the militias that were active during this period. He likewise gave accounts of the fighting during the conflict which were inconsistent with established COI reports. When asked, for example, what had happened at a particular marketplace in Abobo on 17th March 2011, he maintained that traders had been slaughtered by Ouattra supporters, whereas the COI information available to the ORAC (from the Amnesty Report) was to the effect that the killings had been caused by shelling of the area by army units loyal to President Gbagbo. These and other inconsistencies in his narrative accordingly led the ORAC in a very careful ruling to make adverse credibility findings against Mr. A.

The decision of the Refugee Appeal Tribunal

9 In its decision of 25th November 2011 the Tribunal concluded that the applicant's account contained such inconsistencies that his general credibility was undermined. Some examples can now be given.

10 First, the applicant had been asked in the course of his s. 11 interview to name the ‘leader of the FPI in your area’ to which he had replied: ‘Kuadio Fibel, he was the president of FPI in my area.’ By contrast at the hearing before the Tribunal the applicant had given the name ‘Bamba Youssouff’ as the leader of the FPI in Abobo. When this inconsistency was put to the applicant, he said that at the s. 11 interview he had been asked to identify the name of the local secretary and that is why he gave Mr. Fibel's name.

11 Second, he had been asked at the s. 11 interview to identify the name of his local member of Parliament, to which he had replied: ‘He was an ex-soldier, General Bruno: he was also my uncle.’ Before the Tribunal Mr. A. said that Mr. Youssouff was the local member.

12 Third, he was asked to identify the names of the security forces and the youth militias loyal to President Gbagbo. Apart from the generic title of ‘Gendarmerie’ and the name of ‘Con Commando’, he could not identify the particular names of any of these units by reference to the COI information. (I would observe, however, that the Amnesty Report does refer to the activities of an anti-Gbagbo militia known as the ‘Invisible Commando’ and it also stated that these organisations had a myriad of names.)

13 Finally, in his original application Mr. A. had stated that he believed that his wife and children had fled to Ghana, yet in evidence before the Tribunal he stated that he did not know where they were. When this inconsistency was put to him, he said that the interpreter had possibly made a mistake. He also explained that he had been told by some Church members that others had fled to neighbouring countries such as Ghana or Togo. He maintained that he had never said that he had actually located them in Ghana.

14 The Tribunal next noted that some of the documents submitted by the applicant contained a number of errors. His electoral card (‘Carte d'Électeur’) misspells his first name by omitting the word ‘h’. There is a further error in that the entry for date of birth reads as follows: ‘Date de naissance: 20 Mais 1978’, so that the French word for ‘May’ is misspelt.

15 The Tribunal member concluded:

‘Whilst I have had full regard to the documentation submitted by the applicant purporting to confirm the applicant's activities with the FPI party and the difficulties he claims to have experienced arising from same, in light of the issues arising in the applicant's own evidence, I cannot accept that these documents represent a truthful account of circumstances.

I have considered all of the documentation, medical evidence, photographs, country of origin information, grounds of appeal, submissions and case law relied on in support of this applicant's claim. This information does not assist the applicant in circumstances where his credibility is found wanting to such a degree that the very basis of his claim is not believed. I do not believe the applicant. I found him to be vague and evasive in his manner of answering questions raised by the Tribunal and I cannot accept that his manner of answering such questions was anything other than a...