D v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Ethiopia)

This is an appeal by a citizen of Ethiopia against the decision of an adjudicator, Miss S I Bayne, sitting at Epsom, on 3 January, dismissing her appeal against refusal of leave to enter. The sole issue on which leave to appeal was granted on human rights grounds only related to the appellant's medical condition. The adjudicator dealt with that as follows:

I received no evidence to satisfy me to the requisite standard that the appellant's medical problems are of such severity that repatriation to Ethiopia would result in treatment such as to amount to an infringement of her rights under Article 3 of the ECHR. There is no evidence that she is likely to loose her eyesight. In fact the initial operation upon her eye was successful and although treatment is poorer in Ethiopia than in the UK there is no evidence to show that it is impossible to get treatment and as result her claim under Article 3 of the ECHR fails.

For the same reasons I find that there is no real risk of the appellant's right to physical and moral integrity under Article 8 of the ECHR being breached. In any event, the decision to refuse to grant leave to the appellant was made in the course of the lawful implementation of the United Kingdom Immigration Control and in these circumstances is not disproportionate.

Despite this efforts and despite the efforts of the therapeutic contact lens she was noted to still have a slight leak of aqueous fluid through her wound on 22 November 23002 and she underwent reparative full-thickness corneal graft on 4 December 2002, performed under general anaesthetic. She requires re-suturing after the graft on 17 November 2002. Since this time she has achieved a best vision of 1/6 improving to 6/36 Snellen through a pinhole. This is likely due to an irregular astigmatism induced by her initial injury and the subsequent grafting.

She has no evidence of any retinal pathology at present, and her eye is now stabilizing. She continues to use anti-glaucomatous and anti-inflammatory medication, once daily in the right eye, and she is due to be seen in early December 2003 in the eye clinic. In terms of improving her visual acuity in the future, she would, at the very least, require a rigid gas permeable contact lens to be fitted, and, indeed, may require further surgery in order to improve the vision. It is unlikely that her vision in the right eye will ever be as good as the left in the future.