MA v The Secretary of State for the Home Department
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Senior Immigration Judge King |
| Judgment Date | 17 July 2006 |
| Neutral Citation | [2006] UKIAT 73 |
| Court | Immigration Appeals Tribunal |
| Date | 17 July 2006 |
[2006] UKIAT 73
Asylum and Immigration Tribunal
THE IMMIGRATION ACTS
Senior Immigration Judge Latter
Senior Immigration Judge King Td
Mrs A J F Cross De Chavannes
For the Appellant: Ms H Weber, Legal Representative, Refugee Legal Centre
For the Respondent: Mr L Parker, Senior Home Office Presenting Officer
MA (Galgale — Sab clan) Somalia CG
The Galgala is a “sab” or low caste clan, similar to the Tumal, Yibir or Midgan Clans. There are, however, two significant aspects of difference. There are no designated areas in which the Galgala may live; and they can no longer look to a major clan as patron. They may therefore have less expectation of protection than others. These two differences mean that members of the Galgala in general would, on return, face a real risk of persecution and treatment contrary to Article 3.
The appellant is a citizen of Somalia born on 5 May 1985. He originally entered the UK on 28 March 1999 with a false passport and claimed asylum. On 10 July 2002 the respondent refused to grant him asylum under paragraph 336 of HC 395. The appellant was granted limited leave to enter the UK until 4 May 2003. He lodged an appeal against the decision of the respondent which was heard by an Adjudicator on 25 August 2004. It was accepted that the appellant was a member of the Galgale tribe. It was not accepted by the Adjudicator that the Galgale were a persecuted minority in Somalia nor indeed was his overall claim as to his experiences in Somalia accepted as being credible. Although the Adjudicator accepted that the appellant would face a generally very high risk of becoming a victim of crime were he to be returned to Somalia, it was not considered that Article 3 was engaged on the basis of general risk. The Adjudicator dismissed the appeal of the appellant both on asylum grounds and on human rights grounds.
The appellant sought reconsideration of that decision and the matter came before the Tribunal on 1 December 2005 to determine whether or not there had been an error of law in the determination. The Tribunal held that in determining the credibility of the appellant and of his witnesses, the Adjudicator had failed to show that she had taken into account his young age. As to the risk of return it was found that the findings of the Adjudicator in paragraphs 60 and 71 of the determination were contradictory and that reference to “generally very high risk” indicated the imposition of a higher threshold than that of real risk.
Second-stage reconsideration was directed, all issues to be at large save for the fact that there was to be no dispute that the appellant is a member of the Galgale clan.
Thus as it was, the matter came before us for reconsideration on all issues other than clan membership. The reconsideration hearing was conducted on 14 March 2005 and the 26 May 2006. The appellant was represented by Ms H Weber, a legal representative from the Refugee Legal Centre (London). The respondent was represented by Mr L Parker, a Senior Home Office Presenting Officer.
The appellant adopted his witness statements of 21 August 2001, 29 July 2003, 1 April 2004 and 25 August 2004. He gave oral evidence in support of his claim.
When war broke out in Somalia the appellant was some 5 years old but he had memories of moving from house to house in Mogadishu. It was his understanding from his family that this state of affairs lasted about a year and a half. The family then moved to Afgoye, staying with a grandmother who had livestock and a farm. The family consisted of mother and father, six boys and four girls. His father seldom stayed with the family for fear of attack or from fear of attracting attention to the family. He would come and go bringing food or supplies. Life generally was difficult because of the lack of food and resources. Generally speaking the family were left alone to get on with their life together in that region. It was his understanding that the family left Mogadishu in 1993 and remained in Afgoye until 1998/1999.
There came an incident when two uncles were staying in the house when it was attacked by armed men. One uncle sought to intervene to stop the men taking the appellant's sister NA and that uncle was killed. The other uncle came out and was also killed. His little sister Sofir was also shot.
Given the violence of that incident the family attempted to move back to Mogadishu but did not feel safe there. Everything was destroyed and broken so the family returned to Afgoye.
Arrangements were made by the appellant's father and an uncle who lived in Saudi Arabia to remove the children from the region. The appellant's sister, SA, went first in 1998. The appellant left in 1999. The appellant's sister NA came to the United Kingdom in November 2000. Since his arrival in the United Kingdom the appellant has had no contact with any of his family members in Somalia. He lives with his two sisters in the home of their uncle, AA.
When questioned about the chronology of events in Somalia the appellant was somewhat vague claiming that he was very young at the time and that decisions were made by those older than he. During the six or seven years that the family were in Afgoye there was very little for them to do. He spent most of the time around the house and with the family. All he knew was that the grandmother owned the house in which they lived. There were others houses in the vicinity: he was unaware of the clan structure of his neighbours. It was agreed, however, that for the most part the family had been left in peace apart from the incident of violence which he has described.
The appellant called as a witness his elder sister NA who was born on 10 October 1978. She adopted her witness statement found at pages 145 to 147 of the appellant's bundle of documents. She came to the United Kingdom on 19 November 2000.
She was 12 years old when the civil war broke out. At that time the family lived in Mogadishu in an area called Tawfiq in the Yaqsid district. They had to leave their home and were being hunted down. They stayed in different parts of Mogadishu in abandoned houses and in derelict buildings hiding from the fighters of the Hawiye clan. During this time the women and children had to stay separate from the men. The family fled thereafter to Afgoye, staying there essentially until 1999. The incident of violence was conducted by the Hawiye who attacked Afgoye. She described the incident in similar terms to that of the appellant. The family returned to Mogadishu but only for a few weeks and then returned back to Afgoye. Arrangements were made for her to be taken from Somalia and she remembers leaving in a lorry to Kenya. She stayed in Nairobi with other refugees until arrangements could be made for her to come to the United Kingdom.
She described herself as the eldest of the family and set out the names and ages of the other siblings. She agreed that during the period 1993 to 1999 the family had been relatively safe in Afgoye. They helped their grandmother with her livestock. She herself helped with looking after the younger children. Life was difficult and occasionally her father would call in with some money or some food to help. Some of the neighbours in Afgoye were of the same clan as she was.
Our attention was drawn to the witness statement of SA. She has been granted indefinite leave to remain as a refugee and her statement essentially mirrors that of her sister. The uncle in the United Kingdom, Mr AA, also has made a statement to which our attention was invited. He came to the United Kingdom in 1990 and spoke a little about the history of the clan.
Dr Virginia Luling gave oral evidence before us. She adopted her report dated 22 January 2006 to be found at pages 212 to 219 of the appellant's bundle. A further report was cited, namely that of 12 March 2006, served by way of additional evidence. Her principle field of study was in Southern Somalia, and in particular in the town of Afgoye.
She said that the Galgala (Galgalo or Galegale) were a small low status group who perform tasks such as slaughtering animals and making shoes. They were especially known as wood carvers. In one way they were similar to the Midgan and other “caste” groups in Somalia. They were to be regarded as a special case in that unlike most of the caste groups they had been singled out for massacre in recent times and did not receive the protection from “noble” clans which they formerly did.
Unlike the Midgan, or other caste groups, the Galgala were not widely scattered throughout Somalia but traditionally lived in Gedihir among the Abgal and in an unspecified location in Majerten territory. Until the 1980s the Galgala were an obscure sub-clan. In the middle of the 1980s they were taken up by the then President Mohammed Siyad Barre, in keeping with his practice of patronising small, powerless groups and turning them into his loyal servants. It seemed that he used the pretext of their legendary origin among the Majerten, who were a Darod clan, to enhance their position. The Galgala became instruments in harassing political opponents which made them extremely unpopular. After the fall of Siyad Barre the Galgala became particularly victimised. In particular they were victimised by their former patrons the Abgal and there was a notorious massacre of the Galgala in the Mogadishu stadium, others were killed in Mogadishu or by the Abgal militia. Many of the Galgala owe their survival to Abgal Sheikh who gave them sanctuary and set up a camp for them. There was much killing in Mogadishu, particularly of those suspected of belonging to the Darod and Galgala. Brutal reprisals took place at the beginning of 1991. During the last days of his rule Siyad Barre...
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