UI2023004924 & UI2023005059

Pursuant to rule 14 of the Tribunal Procedure (Upper Tribunal) Rules 2008, the appellant is granted anonymity.

No-one shall publish or reveal any information, including the name or address of the appellant, likely to lead members of the public to identify the appellant. Failure to comply with this order could amount to a contempt of court .

            The appellant is an Iranian national of Kurdish ethnicity born on 12 May 2004. He entered the United Kingdom on 21 August 2021 and claimed asylum on the following day. He claimed that while working as a kolbar (smuggler), carrying goods on foot across the Iran-Iraq border, his convoy was ambushed by the Iranian authorities. He escaped, but a few days later was told by his uncle that the authorities were looking for him. The appellant fled Iran, travelling through several other countries on his way to the UK.

            Refusing the claim on 22 December 2022, the respondent accepted that the appellant is a Kurd, that he worked as a kolbar, exited Iran illegally, and that he was only 17 years old on arrival in the UK. The respondent did not accept the appellant's account of the ambush, nor that he would be at risk on return on account of any active interest by the authorities or by reason of his ethnicity or (actual or imputed) political views.

a.       The appellant's age, nationality, ethnicity and work as a kolbar continue to be accepted;