"I'm going to make this man a refugee. I usually reserve judgments, but exceptions have to be made. He has suffered hugely. He's entitled to certainty."
Mr Peter Finlay BL, one of the members of the Independent Appeals Authority for refugees, was speaking after an appeal hearing of the case of a Kosovan man yesterday. He had earlier been refused asylum status by the Department of Justice.
At the outset of the hearing the question was raised as to whether the applicant was a Kosovar. The presenting officer from the Department of Justice said no documentation had been received.
The man's solicitor, Mr Derek Stewart, said his client's last communication from his parents contained his birth certificate. The letter, postmarked Yugoslavia, was produced, along with the birth certificate.
Mr Finlay asked the man what happened him in Kosovo. He said he was a member of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, and was arrested following a demonstration, held for seven days and interrogated about the party. He did not want to tell them anything.
He was released and followed into a park by the police, who beat him and left him in a coma. He was found by a passer-by who brought him to an Albanian clinic. The man explained these had been set up on a voluntary basis by Kosovan Albanians when Albanians were sacked from state employment.
He received treatment at the clinic for his injuries, which included severe internal bleeding, for which he had to have an operation. Asked to prove this, he showed a lengthy scar on his stomach, described as 24 inches long by Mr Finlay.
Asked how he got to Ireland, he said his father had paid 10,000 deutschmarks for places for him and his brother on a container lorry. He travelled for five days, changing from lorry to lorry, until he arrived in Ireland.
Mr Finlay asked him about the precise location of his home in Kosovo, and about the pronunciation of Kosovan place-names. "The production of the birth certificate helps," said the Department official. "I have no doubt he is Kosovan. I don't know whether his life is in danger if he returns."
"The armies are there. The peace may not be for some time," said Mr Finlay. "I'm not satisfied he would be safe."
Judgment was reserved in the case of a young Congolese man who was seeking refugee status. He had been refused it by the Department of Justice on the grounds that, by his involvement with the regime's security organisation, he had put himself outside the protection of the UN.
Mr Bernard McCabe BL, representing the man, said his client had been brought into the security police (SARM) by his father. His job was to give information on people who were protesting. Following the fall of the Mobutu regime in what was then Zaire, he become undesirable. Reprisals were being taken by the new regime, and he was imprisoned. While in prison he was beaten, and as a result taken to hospital, from which he escaped.
The applicant said while he was in prison his mother and sister vanished. Following his escape he made his way home and found his father living alone. His father put him in the attic. Soldiers came looking for him but could not find him. They shot his father. He then escaped from the country with the help of a friend of his father's, using a passport belonging to this man's cousin.
"Broadly speaking, his account of things can be believed," said Mr Finlay. "By his own admission he was a member of a notorious security organisation. But, as far as I can see this man was no more than 16 or 17 at the time. This fellow is not a soldier or an adult officer. He could not, as a minor, be considered responsible for his actions."
Mr Finlay said he would give his decision to the Minister in two weeks.
An asylum-seeker from a north African country said he was in danger at home because he was a member of an Islamic organisation persecuted by his government.
He told the appeals authority he was a businessman and was abroad on business when he learned one of his associates had been arrested. Fearing he would be named when this associate was interrogated, he decided not to go home.
His solicitor handed into the authority reports from Amnesty International and the US State Department on the level of repression of Islamic organisations in the applicant's country. Mr Finlay asked him if he had ever been detained. He said he had not, but his brother had been in prison for the past six years. He was also a member of the Islamic organisation.
Asked if he was associated with a religious Jihad, he said this was a non-violent organisation.
Mr Finlay asked the Department of Justice official if the facts of the case were disputed, and the official said he had stated on his application form he would produce evidence of his identity within a month. He had not done so.
She asked the man how it was that, although his brother was in prison, he was free to travel in pursuit of his business. "It suggests you were not in fear of the authorities during that time."
"We must be vigilant about sending someone back to a country that, according to Amnesty International and the US State Department, is one of the most dangerous in the world," said Mr Finlay.
He said he would give his decision within two weeks.