SA (Iranian Arabs-no general risk)
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Judge | Mr Justice Hickinbottom |
| Judgment Date | 27 July 2010 |
| Neutral Citation | [2011] UKUT 41 (IAC) |
| Court | Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) |
| Date | 27 July 2010 |
[2011] UKUT 41 (IAC)
THE IMMIGRATION ACTS
Upper Tribunal
(Immigration and Asylum Chamber)
The Honourable Mr Justice Hickinbottom
SENIOR IMMIGRATION JUDGE Perkins
SENIOR IMMIGRATION JUDGE McKee
For the Appellant: Ms S Naik, Counsel, instructed by Brighton Housing Trust
For the Respondent: Mr T Melvin, Home Office Presenting Officer
SA (Iranian Arabs-no general risk) Iran CG
The Iranian state is suspicious of those Iranian citizens who are also Arabs and regards London as a centre of separatist activity. Being an Iranian Arab returned from the United Kingdom enhances other risk factors but an Iranian Arab does not risk persecution or other ill treatment solely by reason of ethnicity.
) The appellant was born on 26 September 1976, and is an ethnic Arab, from the Ahwaz area of the south-western province of Khuzestan in Iran. He is an Iranian citizen.
) He appeals the Secretary of State's decision of 26 August 2004 to remove him as an illegal entrant after the refusal of his claim for asylum. He claims to be a refugee within the meaning of regulation 2 of the Refugee or Person in Need of International Protection (Qualification) Regulations 2006.
) We are aware of a decision of the Tribunal prepared in draft [and now reported as BA (Demonstrators in Britain – risk on return) Iran CG [2011] UKUT 36 (IAC)]. We have, of course, decided the appeal solely on the basis of the evidence before us but we note that the conclusions of the division of the Tribunal that heard that appeal are very much in line with our conclusions.
) The appeal has a regrettably protracted history. It was dismissed by an Adjudicator in a determination promulgated on 13 January 2005; but reconsideration was ordered and, on 16 February 2007, the Tribunal found an error of law in that determination. The appeal was reheard by a panel of two Senior Immigration Judges and a lay member on 14 July 2008 but, regrettably, that panel too erred in law and its decision was set aside by an order of the Deputy President of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal, Mr C M G Ockelton, on 30 December 2009.
) The appeal came before us for a further rehearing pursuant to directions of Stadlen J given on 28 April 2010. Those included a direction that the Secretary of State produces “an updated refusal letter”, which she did on 16 June 2010 and has been considered in this appeal.
) At the hearing before us, the appellant gave oral evidence. In addition we had the benefit of a witness statement from Mr Ali Moramazy, an Ahwazi Arab who is now a British citizen and involved in the political activities of an organisation known as the Ahwazi Arab People's Democratic Popular Front, to which we shall return. We also had written medical evidence from Dr Alec Frank, an Associate Physician with the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture (who examined the appellant for signs of torture and maltreatment) and Dr J Austin (the appellant's general practitioner).
) The appellant also relied upon two country experts. First, there were two written reports dated 7 December 2004 and 28 January 2007 from Prof E G H Joffe who is well-known to the Tribunal. He is currently a visiting Professor at King's College, London and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for International Studies at Cambridge University. Second, there was Ms Anna Enayat who has been a Senior Associate Member of St Antony's College, Oxford (attached to the college's Middle East Centre) since 1983. Ms Enayat prepared reports dated 3 May 2007, 30 June 2008 and 14 July 2010, and further helpfully gave oral evidence.
) There was additionally a bundle of some 700 pages of documents, which we have considered.
) At the hearing, the appellant was represented by Ms Sonali Naik of Counsel; and the Secretary of State by Mr T Melvin, a Home Office Presenting Officer. We would like to thank them at the outset for their submissions and general assistance.
) The appellant claimed asylum on 27 April 2004, and attended a screening interview on 27 July 2004. His version of events given then has been, with some consistency, repeated in his statements for this appeal and in his oral evidence before us. For reasons to which we will come, we consider that much of it is not now controversial.
) The appellant was born in Bandar Imam in Khuzestan. His father and mother have lived in Kuwait since 1992. Until the Iran-Iraq War, the appellant lived a relatively peaceful life: but, during the war, the Ahwazi Arabs were regarded by the Iraqnian authorities, rightly or wrongly, as having sympathies with Iraq which at times occupied much of the area, and things became more difficult when the Iranian authorities resumed full control. Land owned by his father in Khuzestan was seized by the Iraqi Government and used to build a training centre in 1998.
) The appellant, in evidence confirmed by Ms Enayat, said that there were a number of loose organisations in south-west Iran that supported either a separatist state or at least greater autonomy within Iraq and greater rights for Ahwazi Arabs, one being the Ahwazi Arab People's Democratic Popular Front, known in Iran as Khalagh Arab (“the DPF”). However, the appellant said that it was very difficult to engage in political activity in Iran, especially for a young person, and it was known to be fraught with risks. To join an organisation such as the DPF would be seen, he said, as a “massive, extreme thing to do”.
) However, at the end of June 2004, he became involved with the DPF. He never joined the organisation whilst he was in Iran, but he was asked to “help out” and agreed to distribute leaflets written in Arabic encouraging Arabs to assert themselves: they comprised anti-government slogans urging people to “wake up”. He said he also graffitied anti-government messages on walls. He distributing leaflets for about 10 days: he said that it was some sort of “test”, before he could become a member of the organisation.
) On the night of 6 July 2004, whilst he was distributing leaflets and books in Ahvaz which was about 100km from his home, he was suddenly arrested in the Kianabad district by the Basiji or Revolutionary Guard, part of the Iranian security services. He was held for three days, during which he was blindfolded all the time, except he was allowed to remove the blindfold once a day to use the toilet. He was fed once a day on lentils and rice and given water at the same time. He knows that he slept on a hard, concrete floor. He thought that he would die because of the intense heat. He was attacked, beaten and interrogated. There were marks all over his body, some lasting until the time he made his statement. Dr Frank, who examined the appellant after his arrival in the United Kingdom, found physical signs of scars and marks on the appellant's face and scalp which supported that account.
) On the third day of his detention, whilst still handcuffed and blindfolded, he was put in a car and driven for half an hour. He was then transferred into another car, which he realised was his brother's car; and his brother was telling him to take off the blindfold. His brother was aware of his leafleting activities, but he did not approve of them. He was angry that the appellant had been seized because of them, but, as his brother, felt bound to help him. The appellant saw no inconsistency in his brother being angry and in his brother driving him across the Turkish border. He said it was the nature of Iranian society that his brother would do anything for him. That was also the evidence of Ms Enayat. The appellant said that, although bribery is common in Iran, if bribery comes to the specific attention of the authorities both the person bribed and the person doing the bribing would be in serious trouble.
) When the appellant took off his blindfold, it was night-time, and dark. His brother told him that he had paid the authorities money to secure his release – in his oral evidence to us he said he thought the amount paid was “a good sum” which he believed to be £10,000 or $10,000. His brother told him that he did not think it was safe for the appellant to remain in Iran. He took him to Tabriz, via the holy city of Ghom and Tehran. He was introduced to an agent, who arranged for him go to Turkey by donkey and thence to the United Kingdom by lorry.
) That was, more or less, the evidence that the appellant relied upon when he claimed asylum in April 2004. In the refusal letter of 24 August 2004, the Secretary of State accepted that the appellant had been arrested as he claimed, but said that, in her view, the appellant was of no interest to the authorities; otherwise he would not have been released. She did not accept that Arabs from Khuzestan might routinely risk persecution, and she refused the application.
) On appeal, even though he dismissed the appeal, the Adjudicator accepted parts of the appellant's evidence, and these findings were preserved by the later Tribunal panel. As the Tribunal said (at paragraph 3):
“The Adjudicator found the appellant to be a credible witness in his claim to have been associated with the Ahwazian Arab Political Movement and that he delivered leaflets within an Arab area and was arrested, detained and ill-treated because of this and released after three days upon payment by his brother of a bribe. The point was accepted that the appellant suffered persecution in that regard at the hands of officials of the State of Iran.”
) We see no good reason to go behind those essential findings, and indeed every reason why we should follow them. The evidence of the appellant before us on those matters was compelling. The appellant's version of events until he...
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