A & Ors, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department

Mr Raza Husain (instructed by The Refugee Legal Centre) for the Claimants Mr Robin Tam & Mr S Grodzinski (instructed by Treasury Solicitor) for the Defendant Hearing dates: 7 � 8 March 2006 ____________________

Whether what was there indicated is to be labelled a policy or a practice seems to me to be immaterial. Whatever it is called, it should have been applied to all Kurds who sought asylum and were from the GCA.

(e) I should add that the claimant has a wife and son, who is now 13. Both have left Iraq and are living unlawfully in Iran. He has been kept from them now for nearly 5 years. Had he been granted ILR as a refugee, as should have happened, he would have been able to apply that they should join him here and there is no apparent reason why that application should not have succeeded. There is in addition medical evidence which confirms physical and psychological disabilities resulting from the ill-treatment he suffered in 1991.

(a) H was born in January 1982. He was arrested in February 2002 having been seen reading a banned book. He was held until June 2002. Following his release, he was stopped and abused by a security officer. Two days later that officer was killed and the police raided his home because they believed he had been responsible. He had not, but he decided he must flee the country and so came to the United Kingdom and sought asylum.

(b) The refusal letter, which was dated 20 September 2002, asserted that the claim did not engage the Refugee Convention. In the light of the account given, which was not disputed, that assertion was clearly erroneous. He was targeted because it was believed he was an opponent of the regime and so, whether or not he had been involved in the killing of the officer, he would be at real risk of torture and possibly death if he returned.