First, it is not the job of senior government officials to interfere in or comment on the decisions of the IRB or the Federal Court. We can only report the IRB's decision, which was public in this case. The same is true of the decision of the Federal Court and the Federal Court of Appeal, in this particular case.
The IRB's decision was actually based on something else: the fact that in its view there was state protection in the United States and the claimants had not sought the protection afforded in the United States.