NM (Draft evaders – evidence of risk)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | H J E Latter,Vice President |
| Judgment Date | 22 March 2005 |
| Neutral Citation | [2005] UKIAT 73 |
| Court | Immigration Appeals Tribunal |
| Date | 22 March 2005 |
[2005] UKIAT 73
IMMIGRATION APPEAL TRIBUNAL
Mr H J E Latter (Vice President)
Mr T S Culver
Mr R Baines JP
For the appellant: Mr C Jacobs of Counsel
For the respondent: Mr S Ouseley, Home Office Presenting Officer.
NM (Draft evaders — evidence of risk) Eritrea
The appellant, a citizen of Eritrea, appeals against the determination of an Adjudicator, Mr T Davidson, who dismissed her appeal against the decision made on 18 March 2004 giving directions for her removal following the refusal of her claim for asylum.
The appellant arrived in the United Kingdom on 19 July 1999 with an Arab family she was working for. She left them two days later and applied for asylum on 2 August 1999. Her application was refused by the Secretary of State and the Adjudicator heard the appeal against this decision on 4 June 2004.
The appellant is an Eritrean national born in Asmara on 2 March 1972. She claims to be a Muslim from the Jiberti tribe. She has three brothers and three sisters as well as a half brother from her mother's side and three half siblings from her father's side. She lived with her family until she left Eritrea in 1991. Her father was an outstanding member of the ELF, as the appellant described it, and continued his membership until 1991 when he was arrested by the EPLF. She was not a member of the ELF herself but had helped her father with his ELF papers. The only person who knew about this was a friend who was arrested on 10 June 1991. The appellant managed to avoid arrest even though officials came to her home looking for her. She managed to escape to Sudan on 25 June 1991.
She found work there as a domestic worker with a Sudanese family. In January 1992 her uncle took her to Ethiopia so that she would be able to get a contract for work in Saudi Arabia. She subsequently worked for three different families there. When the war between Ethiopia and Eritrea started, Eritrean government supporters in Saudi Arabia asked her to contribute financially to aid the war effort but she refused as she did not support it. She attempted to change her Ethiopian passport for an Eritrean one but she was threatened and told that she would not be considered an Eritrean national and would not be able to go back. In July 1999 the Arab family she was working for came to the United Kingdom. She left them on 21 July 1999 and applied for asylum on 2 August 1999.
The Adjudicator did not accept that the appellant's father was an outstanding member of the ELF but an ordinary member. However, he did accept that he had been arrested and detained in June 1991 and that the appellant had fled to Sudan and later worked in Saudi Arabia. He was not satisfied that she was of any particular interest to the authorities because of her former or current political activities. He did not accept her evidence about seeking to change her Ethiopian passport to an Eritrean one and being asked for a contribution to the war effort. He found that she must have been issued with some sort of passport because she had said that she would not be allowed to work in Saudi Arabia without a passport and she would have needed one to enter the United Kingdom. He held that there was no reasonable likelihood that she would be persecuted if returned to Eritrea.
The Adjudicator accepted the evidence which showed that the human rights situation in Eritrea was generally very poor. He considered the argument that there would be a risk arising from the appellant's liability for military service and the possible consequences if she refused. He was not satisfied that the appellant would in fact be liable for military call up in the light of paragraph 5.56 of the CIPU Report which referred to women between the ages of eighteen and twenty seven being required to participate in the National Service Programme including military training and civilian work programmes. As the appellant was over the age of thirty, she would appear to have escaped those provisions. The Adjudicator noted that the maximum penalty for refusing to perform military service was three years imprisonment. Even if the appellant were to be considered a draft evader and arrested and imprisoned on that account, it would not amount to harsh or inhuman treatment. The appeal was dismissed on both asylum and human rights grounds.
Permission to appeal was granted limited to the issues arising from the liability for military service. The grounds assert that the appellant is of...
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