FH, Re Judicial Review

[1] This judicial review came before me as a first hearing on 13 December 2013. The petitioner was represented by Mr Caskie, advocate. The respondent, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, was represented by Mr McIlvride, advocate.

[2] The petitioner sought reduction of the decision of the respondent to decline to accept that representations made on behalf of the petitioner amounted to a fresh claim for asylum. The said decision hereinafter referred to as "the operative decision" was made on 23 August 2013.

[3] The petitioner is a citizen of Afghanistan who arrived in the United Kingdom on 29 November 2007 and claimed asylum on 7 December 2007. When the petitioner arrived in the United Kingdom he contended that he was aged 14. His asylum claim was determined on 2 May 2008. The decision of the respondent was to refuse the claim for asylum but to grant the petitioner leave to enter the United Kingdom until 25 September 2010, when the petitioner would be 171/2.

[5] The basis of the petitioner's claim for asylum was this: he was the son of a lorry driver who had been involved in a road accident in Afghanistan in which two men in the other vehicle involved had died. Those men were said to be from a different tribe. Some months later the family of the deceased killed the petitioner's father (and his assistant) and sought the petitioner to kill him, to prevent the petitioner seeking revenge against them. A friend of his late father (Mr T or MT) subsequently cared for the petitioner and arranged for the petitioner to travel to the United Kingdom.

[6] For the purposes of the present proceedings the relevant findings, of the immigration judge in her decision of 6 July 2011 are as set out in paragraphs 12 to 15 of her decision and these are in the following terms: