NS (Iraq: perceived collaborator: relocation)
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judge | Senior Immigration Judge Allen |
| Judgment Date | 12 April 2007 |
| Neutral Citation | [2007] UKAIT 46 |
| Court | Asylum and Immigration Tribunal |
| Date | 12 April 2007 |
[2007] UKAIT 46
Asylum and Immigration Tribunal
THE IMMIGRATION ACTS
Senior Immigration Judge Allen
Immigration Judge Pirotta
Mr A A Lloyd, JP
For the Appellant: Mr A Bandegani of the Refugee Legal Centre
For the Respondent: Mr J Jones, Home Office Presenting Officer
NS (Iraq: perceived collaborator: relocation) Iraq CG
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1. An Iraqi who is perceived as a collaborator as a consequence of his work for the UN, an NGO, the Multi-National Force, the Coalition Provisional Authority or a foreign contractor, and who has attracted the hostility of an armed group, faces a real risk of persecution on return to his home area.
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2. Ability to relocate in Iraq to an area other than the KRG for such a person would depend on the circumstances of the case, including such matters as the reach of the group which has targeted him.
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3. Relocation to the KRG for any Iraqi is in general only feasible if the person concerned would be allowed to enter and legally reside in the area of relocation, and has family, community and/or political links there enabling them to survive.
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4. LM [2006] UKAIT Iraq CG 00060(guidance on Christian women perceived as collaborators and internal relocation to KRG) is here considered and extended. The guidance inRA (Christians) Iraq CG [2005] UKIAT 00091remains for the time being valid in cases concerning Christians with no other distinguishing profile.
The appellant is a national of Iraq. He appeals to the Tribunal against the Secretary of State's decision of 31 March 2006 to remove him as an illegal entrant from the United Kingdom. The hearing before us took place on 16 October 2006. Mr A Bandegani of the Refugee Legal Centre appeared on behalf of the appellant. Mr J Jones appeared on behalf the Secretary of State.
There had been an earlier hearing on 13 September 2006 which had had to be adjourned essentially because the expert report upon which the appellant relied had only very recently been received by the appellant's representative and Mrs Da Silva who at that time appeared on behalf of the Secretary of State did not have time to go through the report properly. In addition, she was disadvantaged by not having the relevant operational guidance note which we considered would also be of assistance.
It is relevant also to mention that at a case management hearing on 27 April 2006 it was confirmed by Mrs White, who at that time appeared on behalf of the Secretary of State, that it was accepted that the appellant was a Yezidi, there was no challenge to the work that he had carried out for the coalition forces and that there were no credibility issues concerning his activities in Iraq.
The appellant's account of his history which he says caused him to flee Iraq and come to the United Kingdom is set out in his statement dated 15 June 2005. In that statement he said that he was born in 1980 in Bashika, a small town near Mosul in the north of Iraq, and that he has lived there with his family all his life. His family were of the Yezidi religion and they are discriminated against because Muslims believe them to be devil worshippers.
In summary, he said that he feared for his life in Iraq because he had been working as a translator for the coalition forces in Mosul and his life had repeatedly been threatened by the terrorist organisation Qaedat Al-Tawheed wal Jihad.
With regard to being a Yezidi the appellant said that it is obvious you are Yezidi because people you work with or people in town go and pray throughout the day whereas the Yezidis do not. Also they fast for just three days in December as opposed to observing Ramadan. He said that many fanatical Muslims believe that if they could not convert a Yezidi to Islam, killing a Yezidi was a step forward to gaining paradise. He said that he did not practice his religion but there was no way he could be Muslim.
He had trained as a nurse and qualified in December 2001 but found it difficult to get work. He applied to be a translator for the coalition forces and was accepted straight away and he began working for the US Army in December 2003. He worked at the US Army Base in Mosul called Camp Freedom. He said that he worked all the time from then until the time when he escaped from Iraq. He was not sure when he left Iraq but he arrived in the United Kingdom on 20 May 2005 having previously spent two weeks in Syria and was then hidden on a ship and took two to three months to get to the United Kingdom. It would follow from that that he ceased his work as a translator and fled from Iraq in approximately February 2005.
The appellant then went on to describe his translating activities and the people for whom he worked at the camp. He said his family did not mind him working for the coalition forces and he was able to give them money as well. He said that he had to be very secret about what he was doing and he was warned by other translators to stop doing his work because as soon as the terrorists knew about his job he would be killed.
He said that a month before the fall of Saddam he had USA tattooed just below his shoulder on his right arm. He had known this was a dangerous thing to do but he had done it for a bet.
He said that around the three months before he fled Iraq terrorists started to kill some of the Iraqi soldiers and workers for the coalition forces from his base. He said that Qaedat Al-Tawheed wal Jihad were the most powerful of the terrorists because they had money and communication networks, but most of the groups worked together, transferring information such as people's names. He said that when the terrorists captured people they interrogated them for information about other Iraqis working for the coalition forces and also got information from spies on the base, Iraqi workers and indeed from some US soldiers known as “black sheep”. He saw DVDs of two other translators being interrogated, tortured and beheaded by the terrorists for working for the coalition forces and for being Christian. He was also told that in the mosque a fatwa had been announced by the Imam against people working for the coalition forces and that they should all quit as their duty to Islam.
He said that in the last three months before he fled Iraq he received a letter at home from the terrorists saying “we are Qaedat Al-Tawheed wal Jihad” and then a verse from the Koran with which he was not familiar as a Yezidi and then they said that they knew his name and that he should quit and join Islam or he faced death. After receiving this letter he knew he had to try to escape from Iraq as his life was in danger, that he needed to raise money to pay an agent so he went into hiding but he kept working and changed his location between various houses.
A similar warning letter was received at his house about two weeks after the first one and subsequently a third letter threatening him again with death as it was the third warning. He did not keep the letters because if he was captured with those letters on him by the group he would be put to death. He also said that after the third letter the terrorists put his name on the mosque called Haiba Khatoon in an area of Mosul and he was told about this by friends. As a consequence it would be the case that any terrorist group which captured him would know that Qaedat Al-Tawheed wal Jihad were looking for him and such blacklists were on many mosques. He kept hearing different stories about interpreters or members of the armed forces being captured and killed.
About a month before he left Iraq he was told by people from his town that five people had been killed by Qaedat Al-Tawheed wal Jihad for being Yezidi and for working for the coalition forces. Their mutilated bodies were brought back to his village to be buried. He also said that on one day not long before he left he was shot at whilst driving his car home after work. Thereafter he changed his car but he did not believe that this would really work. He said that there was nothing the US Army could do to protect Iraqi people working at the base once they were outside the base. He was afraid to the extent he did not feel he could go into Mosul in case someone recognised him. He could not go to the Iraqi police because they could not protect themselves. He did not know who the terrorists were and the police could not protect him from everyone in Mosul.
He then went on to give details of how it was he was able to leave Iraq by paying a large sum of money to an agent and the details of his escape from Iraq and his travel to the United Kingdom.
In conclusion he said that he could not go elsewhere in Iraq because Qaedat-Al-Tawheed wal Jihad are everywhere in Iraq and would be able to capture him because they had lists of names and probably had his picture. He said that everyone in Iraq has to carry an ID card and because some of the terrorists put on police uniforms, when you showed your ID card at the checkpoint the terrorists could easily see your name or recognise your face and they would see that he was on their list. He said that there is no protection in Baghdad, Basra or Falluja and that the terrorists can reach everyone whether he is an...
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