The Supreme Court has overturned a High Court order quashing decisions that Germany should examine an asylum application made in Ireland by an anonymised applicant identified as D.Y.
The court held that the request to Germany was within the authorities’ powers under the Dublin Convention and was accepted by Germany. It set aside the High Court order and substituted an order refusing the relief sought. The judgment was delivered by Mr Justice Hardiman on 1 December 2003.
D.Y. arrived in Ireland on 3 November 2000 and applied for refugee status. He had previously applied for asylum in Germany in April 1998. That application was refused, and his appeal was dismissed on 11 May 2000.
Ireland asked Germany in January 2001 to take responsibility for examining the Irish application. Germany accepted responsibility. In May 2001, the Refugee Applications Commissioner decided that Germany should examine the application. A member of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal affirmed that decision on appeal the following month.
The High Court later granted certiorari, quashing the tribunal decision and remitting the appeal. It held that the request to Germany had relied on a provision of the Dublin Convention that had not been implemented in Irish law. The High Court had also held that the decision assigning responsibility to Germany was within the Commissioner’s powers.
On appeal, the Supreme Court rejected the argument that Germany could not be responsible because it had already determined an earlier asylum application by D.Y. The court said each new application triggered consideration of which Dublin Convention country should examine it. A prior rejection in another member state did not exclude the new application from the Convention’s process.
The court also distinguished the decision on which country should examine the application from any decision to deport D.Y. It said the challenged decisions did not themselves order his transfer; any deportation would require a separate decision by the Minister. The judgment records that this step had yet to be considered.
The court concluded that Ireland’s January 2001 request was proper and that Germany had accepted it. It did not itself make a deportation order. It set aside the High Court’s order and refused the judicial review relief sought.