A Romanian man has taken a High Court challenge to the decision to refuse him refugee status because of alleged false and misleading representations in his application.
Mr Constantin Dascalu, of Margaret Street, Cork, admits he did not tell the truth in his application for refugee status but said he had been influenced by the stories of other Romanians.
Mr Feichin McDonagh SC, for Mr Dascalu, applied for orders quashing the refusal of the Minister for Justice to grant his client refugee status and directing the Minister to consider the application in accordance with the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, 1951, as amended by the 1967 Protocol.
After receiving an official call-up to the Romanian army in 1995, Mr Dascalu said he was "terrified" he would be persecuted as a result of his affiliation to the Monarchist Party in his country.
The Monarchist Party was active in the overthrow of the Communist government, he outlined in an affidavit.
Mr Dascalu said he had received further communication from the army dated May 25th, 1998, which showed it was still looking for him.
He left Romania in October 1995 and travelled to Ireland via Britain. While in the UK, he applied for asylum but feared, based on what he heard from other Romanians there, that he had no chance of getting it. He panicked and left for Ireland in January 1996 and applied for asylum on arrival in Dublin.
Mr Dascalu said he regretted not telling the truth regarding his application for asylum in Britain. In April 1997 he was called for an interview with a Department of Justice official at which there was an interpreter present. He immediately said that he had told lies in his application for asylum.
A Department note of the interview did not show the reasons or illustrate the genuine concern that he had tried to put across regarding his fear of army service, he said.
On May 5th, 1998, he was told his application had been determined as "manifestly unfounded" and it was refused. By June 1998 he was told his appeal against this decision was also being refused but was given no reason.
The Department of Justice argues that his application did not show any ground for the contention that he is a refugee. The Department also says he made deliberately false and misleading representations and deliberately failed to reveal that he had lodged a prior application for asylum in the UK.
The hearing before Mr Justice O'Sullivan continues today.