He (Drc – Credibility and Psychiatric Reports)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | MR JUSTICE OUSELEY,PRESIDENT |
| Judgment Date | 16 December 2004 |
| Neutral Citation | [2004] UKIAT 321 |
| Date | 16 December 2004 |
| Court | Immigration Appeals Tribunal |
[2004] UKIAT 321
IMMIGRATION APPEAL TRIBUNAL
Mr Justice Ouseley (President)
Mr M E Fraenkel
Dr J O de Barros
For the Appellant: Mr K Kuranchie of Refugee Legal Centre
For the Respondent: Mr C P Buckley, Home Office Presenting Officer
HE (DRC — credibility and psychiatric reports) DRC
The Appellant is a citizen of the Democratic Republic of Congo, born on 1 January 1940. She arrived in the United Kingdom by air on 6 April 2002 and sought asylum two days later. This was refused on 6 June 2002. Her appeal against that refusal was dismissed on asylum and human rights grounds by an Adjudicator, Mr B Grewal, in a determination promulgated on 21 November 2002.
The Adjudicator set out the evidence at some length. It included evidence from the Appellant herself and also from her daughter who had been in the United Kingdom since about 1995, who herself was said to have an outstanding asylum claim.
One of the grounds of appeal is that there were areas of the claim which the Adjudicator did not deal with. However, the claim, as he set out it, was that the Appellant left Kinshasa in 1998, having lived there for nearly forty years with her husband and family, and went to live in the rural east of the country. They left three children behind and lost all contact with them. After a while, and the Adjudicator took it to be about 2001, she began to experience difficulties with the rebels. She hid her nephew in the forest from the rebels who wanted to recruit him. They demanded to know where he was, beat her, took her husband away and burnt her home down. She tried unsuccessfully to find her nephew and grandchild in the forest. She walked to a mission where the priest took her to a man who helped her by taking her to another man, who drove her to the airport and assisted her to board. She had not known till then that she was going to board an aeroplane. Nor did she know where she was going. She only thought she was in Europe when she landed in the United Kingdom, where she knew her daughter was. She met some people who spoke Lingala, and they asked friends if they knew her daughter. They did, and that same day she met her daughter and has lived with her ever since. The daughter said that it was a few days later that they met up.
The Appellant was said to be in need of international protection because she had problems in rebel-held areas, and could not return to Kinshasa because she had lived in a rebel-held area, would be suspected of rebel connections or would be in further difficulties because her husband had been a Mobutu soldier. She also had medical problems, including PTSD, and had no known relatives in Kinshasa. It would breach Articles 3 and 8 to return her to Kinshasa.
The Adjudicator rejected her claim. He said that she had not been involved in any political activity, and had not been detained by DRC authorities. Her fear of harassment by rebels because she would not tell them of the whereabouts of her nephew and grandchild did not amount to a well-founded fear of persecution. That would not put her in any difficulties vis a vis the government. She would not be returned to a rebel controlled area and even if that were to happen she was unlikely to be of any interest to them. The Adjudicator then went on to make a series of strong adverse credibility findings. As issue was taken with the rationality of these, we set them out.
“17. Like the Secretary of State I find the appellant's account of her escape from DRC as completely incredible. I find her account of walking through the forest and surviving on bananas and cassava implausible. She claims to have slept in the forest without any cover or shelter and yet the appellant says in paragraph 5 of her statement at B10 that she was able to keep in touch with the people of her village and that they told her about the rebels and that her husband was still with the rebels. I simply do not believe the appellant's story. In my view the villagers would not have risked contacting the appellant in the forest knowing that her husband was involved with the rebels. I find the rest of the story about her journey even more incredible. I find it incredible that the priest would risk all by sheltering the appellant and then taking her to () house. I simply do not believe the story of her journey with () who allegedly took his bicycle and they went through the forest. She would have me believe that this man walked with her for a whole week before he literally handed her over to another man along with an envelope which was apparently stuffed presumably with money. She would further have me believe that this man made all the arrangements for her travel to the United Kingdom and then in fact travelled with her all the way to the United Kingdom. I was given no explanation whatsoever why ()would be interested in parting with a large amount of money to help the appellant whom he had not met before. In my view the whole story is a complete fabrication and it damages the appellant's credibility very seriously indeed.
18. I also take into account the fact that the appellant and her daughter gave differing accounts about how the appellant traced her daughter. Once again I simply do not believe the appellant that she did not know that she was coming to the United Kingdom till she landed in the United Kingdom and saw white people. This is even more implausible in view of the fact that the appellant knew all along that her daughter was living in the United Kingdom. The appellant would have me believe that she was not aware of her daughter's whereabouts in the United Kingdom when she arrived here. She told me at the hearing that when she arrived in the United Kingdom she established contact with her daughter through people who were speaking Lingala and when she asked them if they knew some Batetela tribe persons they traced her daughter. Miraculously she appears to have traced her daughter by the end of the day. Yet in her statement dated 17 th April 2002 the appellant says that after she arrived in the United Kingdom with this person he took her to a place where she stayed for three days until Monday and that she went with him on Monday to Croydon where she claimed asylum on 22 nd April. I take into account the fact that the appellant's daughter gave evidence at the hearing and she told me that she had found out about the appellant only after she arrived in this country. Once again I simply do not believe the account given by the appellant's daughter. She told me that she found out about her mother through a charity called Lo Sa Lo and that they phoned her that her mother was there. She could not remember the date. At this stage the witness was either unable or unwilling to answer the questions being asked and eventually stated that she had been in this country for some days before she met her. The appellant had apparently told her daughter that she had stayed with the agent but did not know where. These discrepancies in the appellant's account undermine the credibility of her account and her own credibility.
19. I also note that the appellant had said that she had heard some Lingala speakers and then went to their house. I need to be satisfied that the appellant has given an accurate account of past events in order to assess whether the fears she claims to have as to what may happen to her in the future is well-founded. Certainly in the case of this appellant I am far from being satisfied that she has given an accurate account of past events and accordingly I have serious doubts about the appellant's claim to have a well-founded fear of persecution.
20. Having heard the appellant give evidence I have concluded that neither the appellant nor her daughter were credible witnesses. In my view the appellant's story is a complete fabrication. In fact I am firmly of the view that the appellant was very well aware of where her daughter was and in fact arranged the journey to join her daughter in the United Kingdom for economic reasons rather than for fear of persecution. I did not believe a word of the appellant's or her daughter's account. In my view the appellant's journey was well-planned and meticulously executed.”
After saying that the Appellant and her daughter were totally lacking in credibility and dealing with other matters, the Adjudicator said, in a paragraph which was also the subject of criticism:
“24. I have given careful consideration to the medical report. As it is based on the appellant's account, which is not credible, I am unable to attach much weight to it.”
The first ground of appeal was that the Adjudicator had failed to consider an important aspect of the claim which was that the Appellant had claimed to have left Kinshasa because she had been attacked there by people favourable to Laurent Kabila. At interview, she had said that people had thought that cousins she had to stay were Rwandans because they were strangers and because her husband was a former Mobutu soldier. Their house had been attacked and burnt and for that reason she and her husband left for the rural area. This meant that if she were returned to Kinshasa, which is the only place to which returns take place, she would be again at risk. This aspect was not dealt with. She would be seen as someone coming from a rebel-held area and that would place her at risk in Kinshasa. These could be seen as imputed political opinions and give rise to a Convention reason for persecution.
The second and third grounds of appeal took issue with the adverse credibility findings. It was contended that the Adjudicator had failed to give weight to the psychiatric report of Dr Seear, which was relevant to the credibility of the Appellant in having suffered as she said she had. We were referred to two cases;...
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