The High Court refused an Albanian applicant leave to seek judicial review of a Refugee Appeals Tribunal decision refusing her refugee status. Ms Justice O’Regan gave judgment on 21 February 2017, concluding that the applicant had not established substantial grounds for leave under section 5 of the Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Act 2000, as amended.
The application sought to quash the Tribunal’s decision of 21 November 2016. The applicant challenged the standard of proof used to assess credibility and past events, the handling of her credibility and explanation for delay in seeking asylum, the consideration of country information, the fairness and rationality of the decision, and whether the Tribunal had clearly addressed her account of forced prostitution and the Convention basis for her claim.
The applicant’s account, as summarised in the judgment, was that she met a man on Facebook, stayed in contact with him for several months, and agreed to move with him to Italy. She said that in Italy she was forced into prostitution for two weeks. She travelled there on 10 August 2013. She feared that, if returned to Albania, the man might find her, threaten or kill her, or force her back to Italy. These were claims considered in the refugee process, not findings accepted by the High Court.
On the proof standard, O’Regan referred to her earlier judgment in O.N. v Refugee Appeals Tribunal, which stated that past events are assessed on the balance of probabilities, with the benefit of the doubt available in appropriate circumstances where the applicant’s overall credibility is accepted.
The judge considered the challenge to the Tribunal’s reasons for rejecting the applicant’s explanation for delayed asylum application and found that reasons had been given. She also concluded that the Tribunal had recorded and quoted country-of-origin material. Citing earlier High Court decisions, she said there was no duty to assess such information where an applicant’s credibility was rejected generally.
The Tribunal had clearly rejected the forced-prostitution account, the judge found, noting its statement that the only aspect of the claim it accepted was that the applicant was from Albania. In light of the adverse credibility findings and the limited accepted fact, the court considered that the decision supported the finding that there was no Convention nexus.
The court refused leave to apply for certiorari. It did not grant the requested judicial review or quash the Tribunal’s decision.