G v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Serbia & Montenegro)

The appellant is a national of Serbia and Montenegro and comes from Kosovo. He appeals against the decision of an adjudicator, Mr James R Devittie, following a hearing on 26 February 2003 dismissing his appeal against the decision of the respondent to refuse both his asylum and his human rights claims.

The claimant was born on 2 April 1976. He is an ethnic Albanian. He claimed to have entered the United Kingdom on 22 December 1999. He applied for asylum on the following day. As an ethnic Albanian in Kosovo, he claimed that he had been persecuted by the Serbs.

In paragraph 5 of the determination, the adjudicator makes it clear that he considered that the appeal lacked merit. He decided that the claimant's evidence was vague and lacking in detail. The adjudicator referred to the presence of KFOR and UNMIK and considered that there was a sufficiency of protection.

The claimant comes from Mitrovica, an area where the adjudicator accepted ethnic tensions still prevail. The adjudicator, however, classified the claimant as a young man who was able to relocate himself elsewhere in Kosovo.

The grounds of appeal argued that the adjudicator's determination was fundamentally flawed. It is said that the adjudicator was not justified in his finding that the claimant's account was vague and lacking in detail. In our judgment, the claim was bound to fail whether or not the adjudicator had made this finding.