UK case law
VT v The Secretary of State for the Home Department
[2017] UKUT IAC 368 · Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) · 2017
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Full judgment
1. This appeal raises issues relating to the duty of confidentiality and the proper scope of inquiries to authenticate documents during the examination of a protection claim. Background
2. The appellant is a citizen of Sri Lanka who entered the UK on 29 September 2014 with entry clearance as a Tier 4 (General) Student Migrant, which was valid until 30 October 2017. He claimed asylum on 24 November 2014. The respondent refused the application on 30 December 2014. First-tier Tribunal Judge Telford dismissed the appeal in a decision dated 03 February 2015. On 27 February 2015 Upper Tribunal Judge Southern concluded that the First-tier Tribunal decision disclosed an error of law because the First-tier Tribunal Judge failed to appreciate that an adjournment application was made to enable time for further enquiries relating to evidence from Sri Lanka. The decision was set aside and the appeal remitted for a fresh hearing in the First-tier Tribunal.
3. First-tier Tribunal Judge Chana re-heard and dismissed the appeal on 16 March 2015. The appellant appealed to the Upper Tribunal. In a decision dated 23 July 2015 Upper Tribunal Judge Gleeson and Deputy Upper Tribunal Judge Mahmood (“the panel”) concluded that the First-tier Tribunal decision involved the making of an error of law because the judge failed to give adequate reasons and erred in rejecting the evidence produced by the appellant from a lawyer in Sri Lanka because she had already found his account was not credible.
4. The panel set aside the decision and directed it to be remade in the Upper Tribunal. The appeal was delayed while the parties made inquiries and sought to produce further evidence from Sri Lanka. The appeal was eventually relisted for hearing before this panel.
5. The appellant attended the hearing and gave evidence with the assistance of a Tamil speaking interpreter. He was asked questions about his reasons for claiming asylum. The relevant details of the evidence given by the witness are incorporated into our findings of fact.
6. We have considered the appellant’s grounds of appeal, the oral and documentary evidence, the skeleton arguments and oral submissions as well as the reasons given for refusing the application before coming to a decision in this appeal.