THE REFUGEE Appeals Tribunal should guard against over-reliance on the demeanour of an asylum seeker when seeking to assess their credibility, a High Court judge ruled yesterday, when overturning a recommendation that a Belarus national should not be declared a refugee.
Mr Justice John Cooke said misplaced reliance on demeanour could lead to construing a demeanour resulting from nervousness, stress or embarrassment at being an asylum seeker as “a deliberate lack of candour”.
He found the decision of a member of the tribunal in relation to the Belarusian woman was based on a material error of fact that undermined its validity in law.
The tribunal member’s finding of lack of credibility in the woman’s application was based on observing her demeanour during the oral hearing when responding to questions on several specific points identified by the member as being implausible, the judge said.
Apparent hesitation and uncertainty may well be attributable to difficulties of language and comprehension, he said. In this case, the tribunal’s reliance on the apparent demeanour of the applicant, while telling the truth, was clearly unsound. He directed her appeal should be reheard by a different member of the tribunal.
The judge noted the woman arrived here in June 2004 as a student and entered lawfully with a visa. A renewal was refused but she did not leave and in May 2006 was refused asylum. She gave birth to a daughter in June 2006. In May 2008, the tribunal rejected her appeal against the refusal of refugee status. It considered she had not provided a reasonable explanation to substantiate a claim this State was the first safe country in which she had arrived.
The tribunal member found her vague about an incident when she was re-entering Belarus with leaflets on behalf of an opposition political party. She claimed she was arrested, searched and detained for several hours.
While the tribunal member was entitled to base a finding of lack of credibility and plausibility on the manner in which an asylum seeker gives evidence and her/his demeanour when answering questions, the decision maker must be careful not to misplace reliance upon demeanour, the judge said.