Tribunal decisions

The decision

Upper Tribunal
(Immigration and Asylum Chamber) Appeal Number PA/03820/2015

THE IMMIGRATION ACTS

Heard at Centre City Tower Decision and Reasons Promulgated
On 8th March 2015 On 13th April 2017

Before

DEPUTY UPPER TRIBUNAL JUDGE PARKES

Between

Y M
(ANONYMITY DIRECTION MADE)
Appellant
And

SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT
Respondent

For the Appellant: Ms E Rutherford (counsel, instructed by Coventry Law Centre)
For the Respondent: Mr D Mills (Home Office Presenting Officer)

DECISION AND REASONS

1. The Appellant's asylum application was refused, his appeal was heard by First-tier Tribunal Judge Hopkins at Birmingham on the 20th of July 2016 and dismissed for the reasons given in a decision promulgated on the 2nd of August 2016. The Appellant was granted permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal which is the subject of this decision.

2. The basis of the Appellant's case was that he is an Ethiopian national and that he was at risk as the family member of an OLF sympathiser, his father and brother, and that he had been previously detained. At paragraphs 31 and 35 the Judge found that the Appellant's father and brother had been involved in the OLF as claimed. The Judge did not accept the Appellant's account of his expulsion from school or his claim to have been involved in the OLF in the UK. His account of being harassed on his way to school appears to have been accepted and in paragraph 37 the Judge summarised rough handling but not himself being under suspicion going on to find that he would not be at risk on return.

3. The Appellant sought permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal essentially on the ground that the Judge had erred in the assessment of risk to someone who was the family member of an OLF member who can be detained and ill-treated. Permission was granted on the basis that the Judge had arguably failed to take account of the background evidence relating to the treatment of family members.

4. The Secretary of State’s rule 24 response argued that the finding in relation to the Appellant's father and brother having been previously detained was not determinative of the Appellant's claim. The Appellant had not been found to have been suspected of OLF sympathies himself.

5. The submissions of the parties at the Upper Tribunal hearing are set out in the Record of Proceedings. Both maintained the positions that had been set out in the Tribunal papers. For the Appellant it was submitted that the Appellant's position turned on that of his father and brother. For the Home Office it was submitted that the Judge was aware that family members’ involvement could lead to a risk, the question was whether it was a real risk and the Judge was entitled to find that it was not.

6. The background evidence does not show that in every case where there is family involvement in the OLF there is automatically a real risk to other family members. In this case there is no challenge to the Judge’s finding that the Appellant had been harassed but had not been perceived to be an OLF supporter or similar himself. The Judge referred to the relevant supporting evidence in paragraphs 38 to 40 and that the situation had deteriorated since the decision in MF and discussed in the following paragraphs.

7. Given the concerns that the Judge considered and the factual background of the Appellant's case on the evidence presented to him he was entitled to find that there was not a real risk to the Appellant if returned to Ethiopia and he gave sustainable reasons for the findings that he made. It follows that the Judge did not err in the conclusions reached or the approach that he took to make them.

CONCLUSIONS

The making of the decision of the First-tier Tribunal did not involve the making of an error on a point of law.

I do not set aside the decision.

Anonymity

The First-tier Tribunal made an order pursuant to rule 45(4)(i) of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal (Procedure) Rules 2005.

I continue that order (pursuant to rule 14 of the Tribunal Procedure (Upper Tribunal) Rules 2008.)

Fee Award

In dismissing this appeal I make no fee award.

Signed:

Deputy Judge of the Upper Tribunal (IAC) Parkes

Dated:5th April 2017