RP000442017

The appellant is the Secretary of State. She appeals against the decision of Judge O'Rourke in the First-tier Tribunal allowing the appeal of the respondent, a national of Sudan whom we shall call 'the claimant', against her decision of 2 March 2017 to revoke his protection status by reference to para 339AC of the Immigration Rules.

Section 72(10) of the 2002 Act provides that if the Tribunal considers that the presumptions in s 72(2), (3) or (4) apply, it "must dismiss the appeal insofar as it relies on the ground mentioned in subsection 9(a)", and for present purposes it is sufficient to note that the ground under s 84(3)(a) is mentioned in subsection 9(a).

It follows that, that being the only ground of appeal available to the claimant, and the judge having found that the presumption applies, he was obliged to dismiss the appeal. He observed as much in his decision at [29].

Judge O'Rourke concluded that the withdrawal of the claimant's status as a refugee was not, therefore, permitted by the Refugee Convention, and that withdrawing his refugee status would put the United Kingdom in breach of its obligations under that Convention. In these circumstances his decision was: "The appeal is allowed under the Refugee Convention".

It seems to us that the reference to the Refugee Convention rather than the Rules in s 84, and the lack of definition of status itself as well as the lack of reference to the Rules in s 82, tend to lead to the conclusion that the second alternative is the correct one. If that is right, an appeal under s 82(1)(c) against the revocation of protection status is, where the appellant is a refugee, to be determined by reference to the Refugee Convention, as the only available ground provides, and not by reference to the Rules.