The High Court refused a Nigerian man’s application for leave to seek judicial review of the refusal of his refugee status and a deportation order. Justice Brian McGovern ruled that the challenge to the Refugee Appeals Tribunal decision was out of time and found no basis to quash the deportation order.
The judgment, delivered on 19 June 2007, concerned H. I., whose name was redacted in the circulated judgment. He had sought certiorari to quash both the Tribunal’s refusal of refugee status and the Minister’s deportation order. He also sought an extension of time for bringing the case.
The judgment recounts that H. I. said he was a member of the Isoko tribe in Nigeria’s Delta region, where he worked on his father’s farm and led a youth group campaigning about the oil industry. He claimed that in October 2004 his group stopped oil workers from entering the farm, and later burned machinery when the workers returned with a military escort. He said he went into hiding after learning soldiers had arrested his parents while searching for him. He arrived in Ireland in November 2004 and applied for asylum. These were the applicant’s claims as set out in the judgment.
The Tribunal decision was made on 14 June 2005 and notified to H. I. on 16 June. The court noted that the Legal Aid Board Refugee Legal Service told him by letter on 28 June that it saw no grounds for judicial review, while also advising him of the 14-day deadline. He had engaged another solicitor by the middle of July, but the notice of motion was not issued until 28 September.
Justice McGovern found no good or sufficient reason to extend the deadline for challenging the Tribunal decision. He therefore did not consider the merits of that challenge. The court accepted that the challenge to the deportation order was brought within time: the order was made on 15 September and notified on 22 September 2005.
On the deportation order, the judge said the Minister had given H. I. an opportunity to make representations and had considered the case in a way that could not be called irrational or unreasonable. The applicant had produced no evidence that the Minister acted irrationally or breached natural justice. The court refused the application and found no basis to quash the order.