RP000072017

Although it is the Secretary of State for the Home Department who is the appellant before the Upper Tribunal, it is convenient for us to refer to the parties as they were before the First-tier Tribunal and so we shall refer to Mr Ma as the appellant.

The appellant who is a citizen of Vietnam now aged 53 or thereabouts arrived in the United Kingdom as long ago as September 1980 when aged 16 years of age, together with his parents and siblings, they having been granted entry clearance as settlement refugees. They were granted indefinite leave to enter.

The appellant now has six children by three partners, three of whom are under 18. Two of those by a former partner are in foster care but the third minor child, [K] aged 7, lives with the appellant and his current partner who is a citizen of Vietnam also, she being present without leave in the United Kingdom.

Although, therefore, the appellant and his family had on arrival had been accepted to be refugees, the appellant's parents are now deceased and he has no knowledge himself or recollection of how the asserted persecution experienced by his family manifested itself although as I have mentioned he was 16 years old on arrival. That became of some relevance when he was invited to attend an interview to discuss the continuation of his need for international protection, which invitation having taken advice from his lawyers, he declined.

The consequence of that rebuttable presumption was that in any subsequent appeal the Tribunal must begin by considering the Section 72 certificate and if it agrees that the presumption applies must dismiss the appeal on asylum grounds. But the respondent went on to say that in any event it was not accepted that the appellant now faces a real risk of persecution on return to Vietnam and so even if the Section 72 presumption did not apply his asylum claim would fall to be refused.