An asylum applicant who secured an injunction blocking his transfer from Ireland to Germany has been awarded 50% of his legal costs by the High Court.
The applicant, identified as A.H., obtained leave for judicial review on December 11, 2023. Following a contested hearing on December 20, the High Court also restrained his removal to Germany while the proceedings remained unresolved.
The six-month period within which his transfer could lawfully take place expired around December 27. On January 9, 2024, the Minister for Justice confirmed that the transfer would not proceed and that A.H.'s international protection application would instead be determined in Ireland. The proceedings then became moot apart from costs.
Ms Justice Siobhán Phelan found that the injunction was central to that outcome. Without it, she said, A.H. would likely have been transferred to Germany and would have had to continue his judicial review from there. He has since been granted refugee status in Ireland.
A legal issue raised in the case concerned when the six-month transfer period under the Dublin III Regulation began to run. The Court of Justice of the European Union later ruled, in April 2024, against a proposition underpinning that part of A.H.'s case. But by then his own proceedings were already moot.
The Minister argued that there should therefore be no costs order. The court rejected that position. It followed the approach taken in similar cases and held that obtaining the injunction was an identifiable success which costs should reflect.
However, the court reduced the award because A.H. never established the merits of his case at a full hearing and a core legal proposition was subsequently decided against him.
A.H. was awarded 50% of his costs, including the leave and injunction applications, up to January 9, 2024. The judge's preliminary view was that he should also receive the costs of the costs hearing itself, subject to further submissions.