HC & RC (Trafficked women)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Senior Immigration Judge Spencer |
| Judgment Date | 11 November 2008 |
| Neutral Citation | [2009] UKAIT 27 |
| Court | Asylum and Immigration Tribunal |
| Date | 11 November 2008 |
[2009] UKAIT 27
Asylum and Immigration Tribunal
THE IMMIGRATION ACTS
SENIOR IMMIGRATION JUDGE Storey
SENIOR IMMIGRATION JUDGE Spencer
Ms S E Singer
For the appellant: Ms N Finch, counsel, instructed by Luqmani Thompson & Partners
For the respondent: Mr G Saunders, Home Office presenting officer
HC & RC (Trafficked women) China CG
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(1) Although the Chinese authorities are intent upon rescuing and rehabilitating women and girls trafficked for the purposes of prostitution, there are deficiencies in the measures they have taken to combat the problem of trafficking. The principal deficiencies are the lack of a determined effort to deal with the complicity of corrupt law enforcement officers and state officials and the failure to penalise as trafficking acts of forced labour, debt bondage, coercion, involuntary servitude or offences committed against male victims.
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(2) Women and girls in China do not in general face a real risk of serious harm from traffickers. Where, however, it can be established in a given case that a woman or a girl does face a real risk of being forced or coerced into prostitution by traffickers, the issue of whether she will be able to receive effective protection from the authorities will need careful consideration in the light of background evidence highlighting significant deficiencies in the system of protection for victims of trafficking. But each case, however, must be judged on its own facts. China is a vast country and it may be, for example, that in a particular part of Chine the efforts to eliminate trafficking are determined and the level of complicity between state officials and traffickers is low. If an appellant comes from such an area, or if she can relocate to such an area, there may be no real risk to her.
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(3) The Chinese state has an obligation to house the homeless and will not allow their citizens to starve. Therefore a returned trafficked woman without family support will not be allowed by the authorities to fall into a state of destitution.
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(4) Due to reforms of the Chinese household registration system known as the “hukou” system it is unlikely that a returned trafficked woman would be obliged to return to the place where she is registered. The reforms have made it relatively easy for ordinary migrant workers to get legal, albeit temporary, urban registration and there is no reason why this should not extend to returned trafficked women.
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(5) Pre-marital sex is now commonplace in China and women's earning power growing, particularly in the wealthy cities of the east. As a result the number of single mothers in China is growing, albeit from a small base and although a birth permit may not be obtained, nonetheless it is possible for hukou for the child of a single mother to be obtained depending upon where the application is made.
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(6) It is not inevitable that a returned trafficked woman would be punished for having left China illegally. Punishment is unlikely for those who seek and obtain the assistance of the All-China Women's Federation and for those able to give information to the authorities about snakeheads.
The first named appellant is a citizen of the People's Republic of China (PRC), born on 15 th July 1990. The second named appellant is her dependant daughter, born on 10 th November 2006. Their appeals against the decision of the respondent, made on 18 th May 2007 to remove them from the United Kingdom to the PRC having refused the first named appellant's asylum, humanitarian protection and human rights claims were dismissed on all grounds after a hearing by Immigration Judge Devittie in a determination promulgated on 18 October 2007. We propose to refer to the first named appellant as “the appellant”.
After an order for reconsideration was refused by the Tribunal on 22 nd January 2008, Forbes J ordered reconsideration and on 20 May 2008 Senior Immigration Judge Latter found that the immigration judge had made a material error of law in his determination of the appeals for the reasons set out in Appendix A hereto. He decided, with the agreement of the parties' representatives, that the reconsideration should be adjourned for a re-assessment of whether the appellant would be at a real risk of serious harm and be able to look to the Chinese authorities for adequate protection on return. He ordered that the judge's findings of primary fact were to stand.
Thus the matter came before us. In determining the issues before us we have had regard to the oral evidence of Dr Jackie Sheehan, a number of bundles submitted on behalf of the appellant, namely bundle A, bundle B1 (objective material), bundle B2 (objective material), bundle C (authorities), bundle D (third expert report and sources), a skeleton argument from the appellant's counsel dated 28 th October 2008, a bundle submitted on behalf of the respondent entitled “Bundle E”, a COI Service Country of Origin information request and the submissions made on behalf of both parties.
The immigration judge accepted that the core of the appellant's testimony was reasonably likely to be true, Ms Finch did not call the appellant to give evidence. In his determination the immigration judge set out a summary of the appellant's asylum interview and her witness statement prepared for the hearing before him, dated 31 st July 2007, which is the latest statement from the appellant contained in the appellant's bundle A. As there is no issue in relation to the primary facts found by the immigration judge we summarise the appellant's claim. She was born in the village of Nan Shan in Hefei City in Anhui province, where she was looked after by her grandmother between the ages of 6, when she was orphaned, and 10, when her grandmother died. Thereafter she left her home village and took a train and ended up in Sezhuan where she lived on the street with many other children like herself. She would scavenge in bins for food and sometimes find work which was very difficult because of her age. She would collect and recycle cans. When she was about 12 a couple took pity on her and she stayed with them until they moved in 2002, after which she went to a rural area outside the city and worked as a domestic worker. In August 2002 she moved back to the city and continued to live on the streets. In February 2003 she was asked to deliver a parcel to Beijing for 2,000 yuan for which she was paid in advance. She arrived in Beijing and found a hostel to stay in but was unable to contact the people to whom she was to deliver the parcel. She went to the police who allowed her to stay for a few days. She left the parcel in a supermarket safe but it disappeared. She was found by those to whom she was to deliver the parcel and threatened by them, as a result of which she ran away to Bao Ting City where she lived for about a year. She lived with other children and they found ways of getting money in order to survive. In March 2004 she was caught by the people to whom she had been supposed to deliver the parcel and imprisoned by them for two or three days and badly treated. She managed to escape and then moved to a place called Jian Zhao near Sizhuan, where she stayed for about a year. She moved around but ended up back in Beijing where she was told she could get an identification card. She worked in restaurants but had problems in getting work because she was very young so she obtained a forged identity card which showed her to be older, which helped.
It was in 2005 when the appellant was aged about 14 or 15 that she became involved in prostitution. She met a middle-aged Chinese woman while she was employed washing dishes. She had been told that she could find her work to make a lot of money. She was approached by this woman at a time when she did not know what the work involved. She went on a journey by minibus with this woman and two other young girls and arrived at a house in Sizhuan. She stayed in a room and waited to be given work. After two or three days she was told she had to take clients. She was told that if she wanted money then she had to have sex with a man who was brought to her. The arrangement continued for perhaps six to seven months. The appellant was very frightened of the woman, who said that if she ever ran away she would find her. The appellant used to make perhaps 200 yuan from each client, half of which she would be able to keep. The arrangement continued and she was able to save some money. What kept her going was that she was setting aside money and she thought that one day she would be able to escape. In November 2005 she had saved 7,000 yuan. Another girl in the same house said that she knew of an agent who could help her to get away. She met the agent and handed to him the 7,000 yuan and her mother's ring. Subsequently he took her to an airport on 20 th December 2005 and she left China. In her interview for the purposes of an age assessment report she said that she travelled with a snakehead and that the country they flew to was Russia. She was met by a man who took her to a house where she was locked in. He later told her that she would have to be his mistress and have sex with him when he required it and with others when he was not there. In February 2006 he said he was taking her with some other women to another country to which they travelled, she thought, towards the end of February 2006. She was frightened of this man who called himself CB and was afraid that he would hurt her if she did not do what he said. She stayed in the new country for about two weeks and then moved to a different country, which it seems was Russia, where the same thing happened again, only this time she was pregnant but she did not mention this to CB. They then went to another country where the same thing...
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