V (F) v Refugee Appeals Tribunal & Min for Justice

• Jurisdiction: Ireland
• Judge: MR. JUSTICE BIRMINGHAM
• Judgment Date: 21 January 2009
• Neutral Citation: [2009] IEHC 185
• Judgment citation (vLex): [2009] 1 JIC 2106
• Docket Number: [No. 639 J.R./2008]
• Court: High Court
• Date: 21 January 2009

[2009] IEHC 185

THE HIGH COURT

[No. 639 J.R./2008]

V (F) v Refugee Appeals Tribunal & Min for Justice

BETWEEN

F.V.

APPLICANT

AND

REFUGEE APPEALS TRIBUNAL and MINISTER FOR JUSTICE, EQUALITY AND LAW REFORM

RESPONDENTS

REFUGEE ACT 1996 S13

IMMIGRATION

Asylum

Judicial review - Leave - Negative credibility findings - Medical evidence of applicant - Claim that assessment of medical evidence flawed - Jurisdiction of Tribunal - Finding by tribunal member that issue of refoulement not within remit of tribunal - Error of law in so finding - Whether assessment of medical evidence flawed - Whether issue of refoulement could be considered by Tribunal - Whether respondent had erred in law - Refugee Act 1996 (No 17), s 5 - Limited leave granted - (2008/639JR - Birmingham J - 21/1/2009) [2009] IEHC 185

V(F) v Refugee Appeals Tribunal

JUDGMENT OF

MR. JUSTICE BIRMINGHAM

1 delivered the 21st day of January, 2009.

2 Yesterday, I had indicated my intention to grant leave on ground and on ground only. I do not propose to elaborate on that to any great extent, save to put it in context.

3 The applicant claims that he is a national of Togo, and his account as he presents it is that he was born Zaire in 1967 but returned to Togo at a young age. He married and has two young children. On his account, he joined the UFC or the Union des Forces de Changement. His family live in a stronghold of the ruling party, the RPT, and he was known in the area as a member, activist and supporter of the opposition party. The applicant's difficulties are said to have arisen after the election of the first of June 2003, a disputed election. He says that he acted as a co-ordinator at a polling station in a suburb of Lomé and that there was massive election fraud. He claims that the UFC candidate actually won the election but that he was aware, as others were aware, that the ruling RPT Party would declare themselves winners. As a result, on the second of June 2003, before the winner was announced, his UFC superiors gave to him for distribution what has been described as tracts, and these stated that the leader of the UFC had actually won the election and appealed to people to come out on to the streets to protest before the results were announced. He says, the following day, a protest of about 100 people took place, that efforts were made to arrest the protesters and, when they tried to flee, they were kicked and beaten.

4 That day, four persons raided the applicant's house, took away his identity papers and as well as the remainder of the tracts that he had been engaged in distributing. They took him to a detention centre in Lomé, placed him in a small cell, stripped him to his underwear. He says that thereafter and, in particular, after the announcement that the RPT had won the election, he was interrogated about the source of these tracts. This involved being beaten every second day with batons, with a rope with steel ends and with an electric cable. He says that soldiers burnt his feet, using cigarettes, they poured water over his naked body, that they deprived him of food and medicine and that they administered electric shocks to his genitals. He says that he was one month at this detention camp until he was helped to escape by a guard who was a family friend and who was bribed to offer assistance by the applicant's sister. The applicant claims that the guard arranged for his escape during a football game that took place on the 13th of July 2003, that the guard opened his cell door, gave him a jersey and boots and instructed him to mingle with the spectators and players and then leave through the main gate.

5 Having escaped from the detention centre, the applicant went to Ghana, where he lived for some 15 days, received treatment for his injuries and then a priest helped to organise funds that would allow him to leave. He claims to have travelled with an agent by plane from Ghana to Ireland, the flight involving a 20-minute stopover in Amsterdam, and that the agent gave him a passport to get through immigration.

6 There are a number of aspects that emerge from the Tribunal decision to which the tribunal member attached significance, and they might be summarised perhaps as: first of all, the applicant's lack of knowledge about the national electoral commission of Togo, the so-called CENI, and also about the so-called Lomé Agreement; secondly, discrepancies as to whether protesters were killed on the third of June 2003 and as to what the applicant's state of knowledge was in that regard, a view formed by the Tribunal member that if the RPT wanted an opportunity to get the applicant, why was it that his neighbours in the RPT stronghold in which he lived did not report him to the authorities and why indeed was he not killed, even though there were several opportunities to do so. Next, that he failed to mention the fact that he was subjected to electrical shocks in his questionnaire and in the section 13 interview, that it was regarded as implausible that it was possible to escape, badly beaten as he was, that there were certain discrepancies in his account of how he escaped and who helped him, in particular that a colonel emerged well through the narrative. It is regarded implausible that a friendly guard would risk his career or life so as to help the applicant escape. The reference to a stopover for 20 minutes in Amsterdam was seen as implausible. So too is the fact that he was not detected at the airport travelling on a false passport. Certain documentation that he submitted were not viewed as having been authenticated. A SPIRASI report, to which I will be referring in a moment, was seen as not corroborating his evidence and also the fact the issue...