Jehovah’s Witness couple with Irish-born child lose refugee status appeal

A Georgian couple and their Irish-born child who claimed a risk of persecution and serious harm in their home country due to being Jehovah’s Witnesses have lost their appeals over being refused refugee status.

It was accepted by the International Protection Appeals Tribunal that the man was assaulted and thrown out of home by his father after converting from the Georgian Orthodox Church, High Court Judge Anthony Barr said.

It was also accepted the man was assaulted on other occasions in Georgia because of his new faith.

However, the judge concluded there was no error in the tribunal’s finding that, while all three applicants had a reasonable fear of persecution or serious harm if returned to Georgia, there was effective state protection available there.

In a judgment published this week, Barr noted the couple came to Ireland three years ago and their child was born here. The man had met his future wife through the Jehovah’s Witness faith.

When the man’s father discovered in 2023 his son had converted, he assaulted him and threw him out of the family home. The man’s business partner also put him out of their business.

The man required hospital admission after he was separately assaulted by a group of people near his accommodation due to his religious beliefs. He was again detained in hospital following a separate assault inflicted while distributing religious leaflets. He reported the two latter assaults to the police.

The tribunal also accepted the man’s neighbours had left threatening notes on the wall near his home, warning him to relocate. When he did not do so, he was assaulted by the neighbours. Days later, he and his wife left Georgia and came to Ireland.

In his ruling, Barr rejected arguments that the tribunal erred in relying on US State Department reports from 2020 and 2022 as the basis of recent and reliable country of origin (COI) information concerning the risk of persecution in Georgia.

The reports, which noted prosecutions and convictions for crimes motivated by religious intolerance against Jehovah’s Witnesses, reflected a policing and judicial system that supported and protected Jehovah’s Witnesses there, he said.

The tribunal also had regard to Georgia’s designation as a safe country for the purposes of the International Protection Act.

Decisions of the European Court of Human Rights cited by the applicants as a form of COI information in relation to how Jehovah’s Witnesses were treated in Georgia related to complaints over events that had occurred between 1999 to 2001, the judge said.

He also rejected arguments that the tribunal’s decision was flawed or irrational in finding the applicants faced a risk of persecution or serious harm while also finding effective state protection would be available in Georgia.

The High Court had previously found the relevant test was whether the country concerned provided “reasonable protection in practical terms”, he said. It also held state protection “can never be perfect protection”.