T. (A. M.) v. Refugee Appeals Tribunal & Anor

The applicant states that he is a national of the Ivory Coast and a member of the Djoula tribe in the Ivory Coast and of the Muslim faith. He alleges that he was forced to flee the Ivory Coast in or about July 2000 following serious difficulties at his workplace which put him in fear of his life.

He arrived in Dublin on the 8 th October, 2000 travelling by air from Hamburg in Germany. He travelled on what is admitted to be a false French passport, initially stated that he was coming to Ireland for holidays and then on the 9 th October, 2000 applied for a Declaration of Refugee Status in Ireland.

Thereafter, the normal procedures followed and the Refugee Applications Commissioner on the 22 nd April, 2002 recommended that he should not be declared to be a refugee.

The application is grounded upon two affidavits of the applicant and an affidavit of his solicitor. A notice of opposition was filed and the only affidavit sworn on behalf of the respondents is an affidavit exhibiting correspondence with the Embassy of the Republic of Mali in Paris relating to the practice of stamping passports when leaving from Mali International Airport.

The applicant further alleges that he then went into hiding in a compound of one of the Muslim leaders in the Ivory Coast and that the Iman arranged his departure from the Ivory Coast; that pursuant to those arrangements he travelled to Mali and subsequently by air to Paris and on to Hamburg where he stayed overnight and travelled by air from Hamburg to Dublin on the following day. He produced an admittedly false French passport which he alleges he was given at the airport in Mali together with travel documentation and a ticket and boarding pass from Hamburg to Dublin only.