The High Court has quashed a Refugee Appeals Tribunal decision refusing refugee status to a Nigerian woman after finding that the tribunal relied on country information about the Ogboni Society without giving her an opportunity to comment on it.
In a judgment delivered on 6 March 2014, Mr Justice Barr held that the undisclosed material concerned a central part of the woman’s case and that relying on it breached section 16(8) of the Refugee Act 1996 and fair procedures.
The tribunal had affirmed a recommendation to refuse her refugee status in a decision dated 20 November 2009. The woman sought judicial review, saying the tribunal member had relied predominantly on material he obtained from the UNHCR Refworld database, including three unspecified reports by Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board and a 2004 British-Danish fact-finding report on Nigeria. She said she had not received the documents or been allowed to respond or provide other evidence about them.
Her claim, as set out in the judgment, was that she feared her partner’s father, whom she said was a wealthy and influential member of the Ogboni Society. She alleged that, after her partner converted to Islam, his family threatened her. She also said she was kidnapped while pregnant and told that her unborn child would be sacrificed as part of an effort to help the father recover from illness. The judgment recounts that she was rescued after ten days and left Nigeria for Ireland in August 2005.
The tribunal had concluded that her fear of the father-in-law was not well founded. It made a passing reference to possible internal protection or relocation in Nigeria but did not consider that issue further, because of its conclusion on the fear of persecution. Mr Justice Barr said that issue was influenced by the same finding based on material not put to the applicant, and also quashed the decision in that regard.
The court extended the time for bringing the judicial review proceedings, which may have been one day late. It quashed the tribunal’s order and directed that the matter be resubmitted to the tribunal for determination by a different member. The judgment does not itself grant refugee status or determine the underlying asylum claim.