The High Court has quashed a decision refusing refugee status to an Eritrean teenager who came to Ireland as an unaccompanied minor.
The applicant, identified only as M.H., was born in Addis Ababa in 1989 and later moved with her family to Eritrea. She claimed that her Pentecostal Christian family was persecuted there and that she had herself been detained and beaten because of her religion.
She arrived in Ireland in September 2006 and was interviewed shortly before her 17th birthday. The Refugee Applications Commissioner recommended in January 2007 that she should not be recognised as a refugee, and her subsequent appeal was rejected by the Refugee Appeals Tribunal.
A central credibility issue concerned her knowledge of Assab, where she said she had lived for about six years. During interview she identified districts of the town, a church, an oil refinery, the port, a prison and the local administrator. However, she did not mention islands offshore when asked about the coastline.
The Commissioner relied on internet material showing islands in Assab Bay and concluded that her lack of knowledge of them suggested Assab was not her habitual residence. The tribunal adopted that concern and said it “fundamentally undermines” her claim.
Mr Justice McMahon held that reasoning to be unreasonable and irrational. The available map did not establish that the islands would have been visible from where the applicant lived, and the court noted that she had been between roughly 10 and 15 while living there. Her other answers about Assab had not been criticised.
The judge also held that if such an important adverse inference was to be drawn, it should have been put explicitly to her so she could answer it.
A separate challenge concerning a list of religious detainees was rejected. The court also found no basis to conclude that the tribunal had merely paid lip service to the more liberal approach required for a minor.
Because the flawed Assab finding was central to the credibility assessment, however, it tainted the overall decision. The tribunal's refusal of her refugee appeal was therefore quashed.