An Albanian man who said he escaped a deadly “blood feud” involving his family has been denied refugee status after the State identified “inconsistencies” in his account, the High Court has decided.
The 24-year-old brought a legal challenge seeking to overturn a May 2024 ruling by the International Protection Appeals Tribunal, which rejected his refugee claim due to concerns about credibility surrounding the alleged blood feud in Tirana between his family and another, reports Breaking News.
According to the applicant, in January 1997 a man killed his paternal uncle, who shared the same name as him, following a dispute over land.
He claimed that a different uncle later retaliated by killing the murderer’s brother in 2001, reports Breaking News.
He argued that the feud remained inactive until a new disagreement emerged in October 2022, at which point he received a death threat.
He said he left Albania the following month, travelled by boat to Italy and spent five months there working in construction to earn money before eventually reaching Ireland by truck after passing through France, reports Breaking News.
The man applied for international protection in Ireland in May 2023. He maintained that if he were returned to Albania, he would face an attempted killing by the rival family.
An International Protection Officer (IPO) recommended refusing refugee status, stating that the applicant’s claim of being targeted in a “blood feud” lacked credibility, reports Breaking News.
The IPO based the refusal on the applicant’s interview responses, which showed inconsistencies regarding his understanding of the alleged feud. These conflicted with earlier statements in which he said he knew nothing about it and that his family’s silence was meant to protect him.
He later stated that his family only informed him of the feud once he was targeted in 2022, adding that once this happened, they had “of course” explained what was going on, reports Breaking News.
The IPO concluded that this contradiction seriously weakened the credibility of his claim.
The officer also considered that the 21-year gap between the 2001 killing by the applicant’s uncle and the 2022 threat suggested the earlier killing was an act of “revenge” rather than part of an ongoing “blood feud” as alleged, reports Breaking News.
It was further noted that the applicant did not seek international protection during his five months in Italy and claimed it was unsafe to do so because of the country’s proximity to Albania.
The tribunal observed that he had remained in Italy for that period without reporting any attack or threat against him, reports Breaking News.
Before the High Court, the applicant argued that the appeal tribunal had acted unfairly by refusing him an oral hearing when rejecting his case in May 2024.
In a judgment dismissing the challenge, Mr Justice Cian Ferriter said the tribunal was able to fairly assess the case based on written materials and was entitled to refuse an oral hearing, reports Breaking News.
He said the decision was supported by the applicant’s inconsistent account “on its own terms”, which he described as “not plausible”, reports Breaking News.
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