A boy aged five born here to Serbian parents regarded as Roma has won a High Court order quashing the refusal of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal to grant him refugee status.
Mr Justice Gerard Hogan yesterday quashed the 2009 decision refusing refugee status and directing the boy be returned to Serbia, on grounds including the tribunal’s failure to properly address what was meant by “persecution” under the Refugee Act 1996.
A denial of a right to basic education if returned to Serbia amounted to persecution, he found.
The boy, who is not an Irish citizen, was born in Ireland in 2006 to Serbian parents who are of Ashkali ethnicity and are regarded as Roma.
He had applied for asylum on grounds that, if returned to Serbia, he would suffer persecution. The tribunal member had concluded that she was not persuaded the discrimination would rise to the level of persecution.
Mr Justice Hogan ruled the tribunal member had “erred in law” in her construction of what constitutes persecution.
