Court of Appeal quashes decision refusing a national of Zimbabwe a refugee or subsidiary protection declaration and/or permission to remain in the State, on the grounds that the decision maker failed to make a finding of fact on a core issue of the applicant's claim, i.e. whether the applicant is (a) of lesbian sexual orientation and (b) if so, if is she at risk of persecution or risk to personal safety if returned to her country of origin.
Applicant seeking international protection - International Protection Act 2015 - Appellant refused permission to remain in the State - Appellant refused a refugee or subsidiary protection declaration - Statutory interpretation - Whether the International Protection Act 2015 requires a single IPO to perform all required tasks - Whether addendums to interviews must be done so within a specific time-frame - failure to give proper reasons on refoulement decisions - failure to make explicit findings of fact - trial judge did not err in interpretation of international protection legislation - impractical - no temporal requirement - addendum can be made at a later stage - decision does not make findings of fact - decision adopts as its starting position the prior views reached in the application for international protection - appellant not at risk of torture, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment - relevant country of origin information - question on applicants sexual orientation should have been included and answered in decision making process - must be explicit findings of fact on core issue in applicants claim - assertion of a sexual orientation is starting point of process rather than end point - decision quashed - remit matter for consideration of core issue of fact - explicit findings of fact required