All Articles: Country Guidance

On 22nd May 2023 the Upper Tribunal published a new country guidance on case on Democratic Republic of Congo, PO (DRC – Post 2018 elections) (CG) [2023] UKUT 00117. PO considers the risk of persecution for political opponents following the election of Felix Tshisekedi in 2019, significantly narrowing the scope...

2nd June 2023
BY Katherine Soroya

The Upper Tribunal has issued country guidance about the risk from gangs in El Salvador. In EMAP (Gang violence – Convention Reason) El Salvador CG [2022] UKUT 00335 (IAC), the Upper Tribunal makes helpful findings about the general context in which persecution by gangs takes place in El Salvador and...

20th December 2022
BY Alex Schymyck

The outcome of an asylum case can sometimes depend not on what the individual person says happened to them but on the general situation in a particular country. The general situation for asylum seekers from several countries is determined by the Upper Tribunal in what are called Country Guidance (CG)...

13th October 2022
BY Iain Halliday

The Upper Tribunal judgment in SMO & KSP (Civil status documentation; article 15) Iraq CG [2022] UKUT 110 (IAC) comes as a relief for those representing Iraqi nationals who fear that they cannot be properly re-documented on return to Iraq. The case provides guidance on whether someone sent back to...

16th May 2022
BY Eva Maria Doerr

The Home Office has been refused permission to appeal against the latest Sri Lankan country guidance decision. The case is KK and RS (Sri Lanka) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] EWCA Civ 119. Background Last year, in KK and RS (Sur place activities: risk) Sri Lanka...

28th February 2022
BY Deborah Revill

The Upper Tribunal has put out a country guidance ruling on the Iranian government’s monitoring of dissidents on Facebook. Previous case law on the general human rights situation in Iran continues to hold good, but the new decision makes additional findings on a narrow but important issue: “risk on return...

3rd February 2022
BY CJ McKinney

In AAR (OLF – MB confirmed) Ethiopia CG [2022] UKUT 1 (IAC), the Upper Tribunal has confirmed that the situation in Ethiopia has not changed substantially enough to allow a departure from previous country guidance. This is important because people applying for asylum based on Oromo Liberation Front (OLF) support/and...

17th January 2022
BY One Pump Court pupils

Readers may be forgiven for thinking that, where the Family Court finds that a person is at risk of female genital mutilation and makes a Female Genital Mutilation Protection Order (FGMPO), it will feed into the asylum consideration process. Not so. Or, perhaps more accurately, not necessarily so. It all...

5th May 2021
BY Grace Brown

In AS (Safety of Kabul) Afghanistan CG [2020] UKUT 130 (IAC) the Upper Tribunal has approved its 2018 decision that a returning male in good health can safely and reasonably relocate to Kabul subject to individual factors. That decision had been set aside and remitted to the tribunal by the...

11th May 2020
BY Ali Bandegani

Over 11 years since the decision in SZ and JM (Christians – FS confirmed) Iran CG [2008] UKAIT 82, the Upper Tribunal has revisited the question of risk on return for certain groups of Christians in Iran. The result is PS (Christianity – risk) Iran CG [2020] UKUT 46 (IAC)....

27th February 2020
BY Craig Holmes

On 20 December 2019, the Upper Tribunal issued a new country guidance case on Iraq. This new case, SMO, KSP & IM (Article 15(c); identity documents) Iraq CG [2019] UKUT 400 (IAC), replaces all existing country guidance, including AA (Article 15(c)) Iraq CG [2015] UKUT 544 (IAC); BA (Returns to...

8th January 2020
BY Nath Gbikpi

In March 2018, the Upper Tribunal promulgated the country guidance decision AS (Safety of Kabul) Afghanistan CG [2018] UKUT 118. The tribunal dismissed AS’s appeal and provided guidance on the suitability of Kabul as a site for “internal relocation”. It broadly held that relocation to Kabul was generally safe and...

31st May 2019
BY Ali Bandegani

In a unanimous decision the Court of Appeal have allowed the appeal of an Ahmadi who was unable to demonstrate that his case fell within the relevant country guidance decision of MN and others (Ahmadis- country conditions- risk) Pakistan CG [2012] UKUT 389 (IAC). The case is WA (Pakistan) v...

12th March 2019
BY Jawaid Luqmani

Credit where it’s due. In numerous claims and fresh claims for asylum for well over half a decade now, the firm of Barnes Harrild & Dyer has been presenting the Secretary of State for the Home Department with various reports by Professor Emile Joffé giving his expert opinion about the...

14th February 2019
BY Rudolph Spurling

AM (Iran) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2018] EWCA Civ 2706 demonstrates the Court of Appeal’s increasing tendency to find any reason to reject the appeals of foreign criminals. AM is an individual deserving of no sympathy. He has been convicted of raping a 17 year old...

13th December 2018
BY Christopher Cole

The Home Office now believes that the Sudanese country guidance cases should no longer be followed, based on a change of country circumstances. Its “lines to take” now argue that while non-Arabs are likely to be at risk in the Darfur region, not all are at risk in the capital...

17th July 2018
BY Nicholas Webb

AAH (Iraqi Kurds – internal relocation) (CG) [2018] UKUT 212 (IAC) is a recent country guidance case on the availability of internal relocation for Iraqi Kurds to the Iraqi Kurdish Region. This case updates some of the guidance contained in AA (Iraq) v SSHD [2017] EWCA Civ 944, which had in...

2nd July 2018
BY Nick Nason

The Upper Tribunal has in AS (Safety of Kabul) Afghanistan CG [2018] UKUT 118 (IAC) given new country guidance in cases concerning removal to Kabul. The new guidance covers two main areas of concern. The first is the risk, on return to Kabul, from the Taliban. The second focuses on...

18th April 2018
BY Thomas Beamont

The Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration has urged the Home Office to fundamentally overhaul the country of origin information it gives to officials making asylum decisions. David Bolt’s latest report, published today, says that the department “needs to examine whether the current format and contents of [Country Policy...

30th January 2018
BY CJ McKinney

Further submissions are notoriously difficult to prepare. In PR (Sri Lanka), R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWCA Civ 1946 the Court of Appeal has highlighted the need for focussed representations that make specific reference to all evidence and country information being...

29th November 2017
BY Christopher Cole

In FY (Somalia) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2017] EWCA Civ 1853, the Court of Appeal refused the deportation of a Somali national on the basis that he would face a real risk of living in circumstances falling below the Article 3 threshold if deported. In doing so, the...

28th November 2017
BY Bilaal Shabbir

What happens where the Upper Tribunal makes a mistake in a country guidance case? And in what circumstances will the Court of Appeal have jurisdiction to hear an appeal against an Upper Tribunal decision that has already been remitted to the First Tier Tribunal? Both of these interesting issues crop...

14th August 2017
BY nicknason

The violence in Libya has reached such a high level that substantial grounds are shown for believing that a returning civilian would, solely on account of his presence on the territory of that country or region, face a real risk of being subject to a threat to his life or...

3rd July 2017
BY Nath Gbikpi

Is the First-Tier Tribunal (FTT) bound to take into account a Country Guidance (CG) case that is issued by the Upper Tribunal after the date of the FTT hearing, and after the date the FTT judge signs the determination, but before that determination is promulgated? The short answer, in general,...

26th May 2017
BY Nick Nason

In HD (Trafficked women) Nigeria CG [2016] UKUT 00454 (IAC) the Upper Tribunal considered the position of victims of trafficking returning to Nigeria. Under the previous country guidance case, PO (trafficked women) Nigeria [2009] UKAIT 00046, in order to demonstrate a real risk of persecution on return to Nigeria, a...

25th October 2016
BY Bijan Hoshi

The Upper Tribunal has issued a new Country Guidance case on Eritrea: MST and Others (national service – risk categories) (CG) [2016] UKUT 443 (IAC). It weighs in at 459 paragraphs plus voluminous appendices. The findings are good news for Eritrean refugees seeking sanctuary; the tribunal recognises the danger they face...

11th October 2016
BY Colin Yeo

The Home Office has published a new 285 page report of a UK fact finding mission to Eritrea from February 2016 and updated its country policy documents on illegal exit from Eritrea and military service. From a quick glance, it looks like there is little change in the Home Office position,...

10th August 2016
BY Colin Yeo

The official country information watchdog, the Independent Advisory Group on Country Information, has criticised the Home Office’s use of country information on the situation in Eritrea. The Guardian has picked up on the story and the full IAGCI report can be found here. [UPDATE: Human Rights Watch has written to the the...

1st July 2015
BY Colin Yeo

MM (Darfuris) Sudan (CG) [2015] UKUT 10 (IAC) is a commendably concise and to the point new Country Guidance case on Sudan and Darfuris: In the country guidance case of AA (Non-Arab Darfuris-relocation) Sudan CG [2009] UKAIT 00056, where it is stated that if a claimant from Sudan is a non-Arab Darfuri...

12th January 2015
BY Colin Yeo

In an arguably less than ideal piece of timing the Upper Tribunal has finally, just two days before Christmas, issued the long awaited Country Guidance decision on asylum claims by Pakistani Christians. The case is AK and SK (Christians: risk) Pakistan CG [2014] UKUT 00569 (IAC) and the hearing actually...

23rd December 2014
BY Colin Yeo

Some information about the shadowy Upper Tribunal Reporting Committee shared with me by the indefatigable Shoaib Khan, obtained through a Freedom of Information request: The current members of the reporting committee are: Mr Justice McCloskey (President), Mr C M G Ockelton (Vice President), Upper Tribunal Judge Peter Lane (Chair), Upper...

15th December 2014
BY Colin Yeo

Long-awaited guidance on returns to Mogadishu poses significant, but not insurmountable, challenges to appellants It may be 286 pages long but the apparent effect of the new Somalia Country Guidance — MOJ & Ors (Return to Mogadishu) (CG) [2014] UKUT 442 (IAC) — can, from the Home Office’s perspective, be...

31st October 2014
BY Taimour Lay

The official headnote is quite long but you can get the gist from paragraph 2: There is significant evidence of human rights abuses, including within Cabinda and affecting Cabindans, problems of arbitrary arrest and detention, ill-treatment in detention, poor prison conditions, restrictions on freedom of expression, government action against protest...

1st October 2014
BY Colin Yeo

In GP and others (South Korean citizenship) North Korea CG [2014] UKUT 391 (IAC) the tribunal concludes, to cut a long story short, that North Koreans can jolly well go back to South Korea whether they like it or not. Henceforth. Whereforeunto. Hereafter. Thereof.

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25th September 2014
BY Colin Yeo

The phased withdrawal of US forces has not led to a return to generalised sectarian conflict and indeed appears to have resulted in a significant annualised drop in the number of security incidents … the most likely development is that the levels of violence will either continue to reduce or remain...

15th August 2014
BY Colin Yeo

Nearly 3 years after the end of the civil war in Libya that swept away the Qadhafi regime and its associated country guidance, and after nearly 8 months of deliberation, the Upper Tribunal has decided that Libya isn’t so bad after all, at least for men. The determination of AT...

16th July 2014
BY Jared Ficklin

So says the immigration tribunal in the latest Country Guidance case of QH (Christians – risk )(China) CG [2014] UKUT 86 (IAC).

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17th March 2014
BY Colin Yeo

So says the tribunal in MD (same-sex oriented males: risk) India CG [2014] UKUT 65 (IAC), anyway. And even if there was risk in the home area, the tribunal considers that relocation within India is generally reasonable and “LGBT support organisations” can provide help going underground if need be (para 170)....

21st February 2014
BY Colin Yeo

For we tribunal watchers the list is notably short. Judicial ambitions to categorise, measure and risk assess the entire world have been scaled back, perhaps because of the impossibility of the task but more likely because resources are being absorbed by the transfer of judicial review into the Upper Tribunal....

20th February 2014
BY Colin Yeo

Official headnote: (1) All Turkish males are required to undergo military service but exemption can be granted on the grounds of physical or mental disability which includes “sexual identity disorder”. (2) Homosexuality is regarded by the Turkish army as a sexual identity disorder but the perception of homosexuality in Turkey...

2nd January 2014
BY Colin Yeo
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