In a groundbreaking case, the Refugee Appeals Tribunal has agreed to a legal settlement which will allow a Congolese national to have his asylum appeal reassigned to a different member of the tribunal.
Richard Nyembo, who lives in Cork, had initiated judicial review proceedings in 2004 when the tribunal refused to reassign his appeal on refugee status from tribunal member James Nicholson. He claimed that Mr Nicholson's close to 100 per cent refusal record gave grounds for his fear of bias on his part. The tribunal had argued there was no legal basis for the judicial review
The Refugee Appeals Tribunal does not publish its decisions or reveal the basis on which cases are allocated to individual members, nor does it release any statistics on the records of individual members or on the general trend in decisions. It only publishes figures concerning the outcomes of appeals.
After lengthy court proceedings lasting three years, lawyers acting for Mr Nyembo and two other asylum seekers, Paulo Segundo and Claire Tibasima, last month succeeded in securing discovery of all documents relating to the decision-making record of the tribunal for 2002, 2003 and 2004 in respect of oral appeal hearings, as well as the decision-making record of Mr Nicholson in respect of oral appeal hearings over the same period.
They were also granted discovery of all materials and documents pertaining to the criteria and procedures by which the tribunal chairperson assigns cases to tribunal members.
Mr Nyembo's lawyers were awaiting delivery of the documents until last Monday, when an order made by Ms Justice Mary Finlay Geoghegan settled his case and the two related cases.
The tribunal agreed that the appeals of the three applicants would be reassigned and their costs would also be met.
In a statement, Mr Nyembo's solicitor Colm Stanley said he was disappointed that the tribunal "continues to deny fair procedures to asylum seekers".
Mr Stanley added: "They have not provided details of the criteria which the tribunal chairperson employs in assigning cases to individual members and I cannot understand this . . .
"As an immigration lawyer I believe that the method by which the tribunal assigns cases to its members should be available to practitioners who represent asylum seekers in the interests of transparency and fairness. If there is nothing to hide then it must be in the interests of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal as a whole to reveal this information now."