The first-named applicant, the mother of the remaining applicants, one of whom suffered from sickle cell disease claimed that the fact that her daughter was affected with sickle cell disease had caused them to be stigmatised in Nigeria. A medical report from an Irish consultant concluded that the ill child would likely die if returned to Nigeria. The Commissioner refused their applications for asylum and applied Section 13(6)(a) of the Refugee Act 1996, i.e. she found that their claims had no or a minimal basis for their contentions that they were refugees. The Tribunal upheld the Commissioner’s decision and the applicants sought to review that decision.
The court granted leave for judicial review, finding that having been put on notice of the child’s affliction the Tribunal had failed to carry out any further investigation into the treatment that the child would receive in Nigeria and that this constituted a failure to consider this aspect of the case.
