UI-2026-000545

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The decision



IN THE UPPER TRIBUNAL
IMMIGRATION AND ASYLUM CHAMBER Case No: UI-2026-000545
First-tier Tribunal No: PA/57854/2024

THE IMMIGRATION ACTS

Decision & Reasons Issued:
On 23 June 2026

Before

UPPER TRIBUNAL JUDGE HIRST

Between

AMA
(ANONYMITY ORDER MADE)
Appellant
and

SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT
Respondent

Order Regarding Anonymity

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.


DECISION AND REASONS
1. The Appellant appeals from the decision of the First-tier Tribunal dated 5 November 2025, dismissing his appeal on protection grounds.
2. Permission to appeal was granted by the First-tier Tribunal on 6 February 2026.
3. On 16 February 2026 the Respondent filed a Rule 24 response to the notice of appeal in which she conceded that the decision of the First-tier Tribunal involved a material error of law and that the decision should be set aside and the appeal remitted to the First-tier Tribunal for rehearing.
4. Having reviewed the decision I find there was a material error of law. The Respondent conceded in the refusal letter that the Appellant had been in a secret relationship which resulted in a pregnancy, and that he had left Iraq after his girlfriend told him that her family were looking for him to kill him. Those concessions were not withdrawn at the First-tier Tribunal hearing. It was a material error of law for the judge to go behind those concessions and make the adverse credibility findings at paragraphs 10-16 of the decision. I therefore set the decision of the First-tier Tribunal aside.
5. The appropriate disposal is for the appeal to be remitted to the First-tier Tribunal for rehearing before a different judge with no findings preserved.

Notice of Decision
The decision of the First-tier Tribunal involved the making of a material error of law and is set aside.
The appeal is remitted to the First-tier Tribunal for rehearing before a different judge with no findings preserved.


L Hirst

Judge of the Upper Tribunal
Immigration and Asylum Chamber


16 June 2026