UI2024002353

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 a national of Iraq and of Kurdish ethnicity. He entered the UK in November 2021, when aged 15 years old. His age was not disputed by the Home Office and following his lodging of a protection claim on the grounds of his political opinion, he was granted leave until 24 th December 2023 in accordance with the Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Child policy. The Respondent did however refuse his protection claim and refused to recognise the Appellant has a refugee under the Refugee Convention.

      The Appellant duly appealed against this decision and his appeal was heard by the Judge on 20 th March 2024. Before the Judge, the Appellant was represented by Counsel and the Respondent by a Presenting Officer. The Judge heard from the Appellant himself and oral submissions from both parties.

      After noting at [7] another piece of evidence relied upon by the Appellant, consisting of a photograph depicting the Appellant at a claimed demonstration at or near the Iranian embassy in London, the Judge set out his findings at [9]-[18] of his decision. I return to these in the section further below when setting out my analysis of the Respondent's grounds of appeal.