The High Court refused a Pakistani family leave to seek certiorari quashing the Refugee Appeals Tribunal’s decision to affirm the refusal of their refugee applications. The court dismissed the judicial review application after finding that the tribunal’s credibility findings complied with the applicable legal principles.
The case was heard as a “telescoped” application by Mr Justice Eagar, who delivered judgment on 26 November 2015. The applicants were a couple and their three minor children. Their father said the family feared persecution in Pakistan linked to his marriage and political affiliations, and to his wife’s stepfamily’s political connections.
The father’s account included a shooting in 2008, an alleged attempt to kidnap two children at school in 2009, and gunfire at their rented home in December 2010 that killed two members of the landlord’s family. He said the family moved within Lahore and later left Pakistan. Those events and the claimed risk on return were allegations made in the asylum proceedings, not findings by the High Court.
The Refugee Appeals Tribunal had rejected the claims, relying on a series of credibility concerns. These included the father’s answers about the geography of Pakistan, the children’s injuries compared with medical reports, the family’s account of political risk, and the timing of the alleged threats. The tribunal also concluded that Karachi offered a viable internal relocation option. The applicants challenged the tribunal’s treatment of evidence and its assessment of state protection and relocation.
The High Court said its role on judicial review was to assess whether the decision-making process was legally sound, rather than to reassess credibility itself. It upheld several of the tribunal’s credibility findings, including its reasons for rejecting the account of the school incident and its assessment of the medical reports. It also considered the findings on the political claim, the marriage certificate relating to the second applicant’s mother and stepfather, and the family’s account of who supported them.
The judge described the tribunal’s finding about how the second applicant passed through Dublin Airport immigration as peripheral. The court’s decision did not determine the asylum claims afresh. It ruled that the applicants were refused leave to seek certiorari and dismissed the application.