R.N. v The International Protection Appeals Tribunal & Anor (Approved)

                  The Applicant made a claim for international protection to the Second Respondent on 9 th of August, 2019 on the basis that, if he were return to Zimbabwe, he would face persecution/serious harm. In his application for international protection he identified his ethnic origin as �Ndebele� and confirmed that he spoke English and Ndebele.�

                  In advancing his claim, the Applicant said that he was born in 1994 in Johannesburg, South Africa. His parents were from Zimbabwe and the family moved back to Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, a very short time after he was born. The Applicant has two younger brothers and his father died in 2003. When he finished secondary school, he studied construction studies at Bulawayo Polytechnic before working for a number of years as a junior construction supervisor in Bulawayo.�

                  The Applicant�s two younger brothers are gay.� The Applicant claims that on the 31 st of July, 2019 he received a telephone call from his mother in or around 2pm while he was at work. �She was upset and she told the Applicant that his two younger brothers had been taken into police custody because they were gay.� She said that the men who had arrested his brothers had given her an arrest warrant in connection with their arrest.

                  The Applicant claims to have decided that he needed to leave Zimbabwe for his safety. He made his way to South Africa and then arranged to travel to Ireland via Dubai. �He travelled to Ireland on a false South African passport. He destroyed the passport before he arrived in Ireland on the 8 th of August, 2019.�

                  In his long form application completed in September, 2019, the Applicant claims (in response to question 68) a fear that he would be arrested for looking for his brothers and could disappear in the same way they did.� Similarly, in response to question 87, he reiterated that he was at risk because he had been looking for his brothers.