Upper Tribunal (Immigration and asylum chamber), 2018-12-20, PA/00392/2017
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Date | 20 December 2018 |
| Published date | 28 January 2019 |
| Hearing Date | 16 August 2018 |
| Status | Unreported |
| Court | Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) |
| Appeal Number | PA/00392/2017 |
Appeal Number: PA/00392/2017
Upper Tribunal
(Immigration and Asylum Chamber) Appeal Number: pa/00392/2017
THE IMMIGRATION ACTS
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Heard at Field House |
Decision and Reasons Promulgated |
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On 16 August 2018 |
On 20 December 2018 |
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Before
LORD BECKETT SITTING AS A JUDGE OF THE UPPER TRIBUNAL
UPPER TRIBUNAL JUDGE GLEESON
Between
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT
Appellant
and
H M S
[ANONYMITY ORDER made]
Respondent
Representation:
For the appellant: Mr Stefan Kotas, a Senior Home Office Presenting Officer
For the respondent: Mr Ellis Wilford, Counsel instructed by Duncan Lewis & Co,
solicitors
DECISION AND REASONS
Anonymity order
The Upper Tribunal has made an anonymity order pursuant to Rule 14 of the Tribunal Procedure (Upper Tribunal) Rules 2008: unless the Upper Tribunal or a Court directs otherwise, no report of these proceedings or any form of publication thereof shall identify the original appellant, whether directly or indirectly. This order applies to, amongst others, all parties. Any failure to comply with this order could give rise to contempt of court proceedings.
Decision and reasons
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The Secretary of State appeals with permission against the decision of the First-tier Tribunal allowing the claimant’s appeal against his decision to refuse international protection. The claimant is a Palestinian from the Occupied Palestinian Territories but before coming to the United Kingdom he was ordinarily resident in Lebanon. It is accepted that he is stateless and both of his areas of former habitual residence, the state of Lebanon and the Occupied Palestinian Territories, have refused to readmit him.
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The claimant is the son of a refugee protected by United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA), and it is accepted that he is named as such on his father’s UNWRA registration card. He has supplied to the Secretary of State a number of documents giving him two different dates of birth in March 1975, alternatively in April 1979. It is not now disputed that he is stateless, but the Secretary of State considers that the claimant is not entitled to international protection in the United Kingdom.
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This is the decision of the Upper Tribunal, to which we have both contributed. Its promulgation has been delayed, for which we apologise. No oral evidence was taken at the hearing.
Basis of claim
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The claimant appealed to the First-tier Tribunal against the Secretary of State’s decision to refuse him leave to remain as a stateless person and/or international protection under the Refugee Convention, humanitarian protection, or leave to remain in the United Kingdom on human rights grounds.
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He also challenged the Secretary of State’s decision to serve him with an automatic deportation order pursuant to section 32 of the Borders, Citizenship and Immigration Act 2009, which he resists under section 33(2) (Exception 1) on the basis that his removal to Lebanon and/or the Occupied Palestinian Territories, if it were possible to effect it, would put him at risk of an Article 3 ECHR breach alternatively breach the United Kingdom’s international obligations under the Refugee Convention. The Secretary of State relied only on removal to Lebanon before us.
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The Secretary of State certified his decision to refuse leave to remain pursuant to section 72 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 (as amended), as the claimant was convicted in the United Kingdom of an offence for which he was sentenced to a period of imprisonment of 2 years (section 72(2)), raising a presumption that he is a danger to the community. That certificate is rebuttable under section 72(6), the burden being upon the claimant to show that he is not a danger to the community.
Background
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The claimant was born in Bint Jlal, a refugee camp in Lebanon, his parents having fled Palestine before he was born. He has three brothers, two of whom now live in Brazil and one in Abu Dhabi. His sisters live in Gaza, as far as he knows, as does his mother. He lost contact with them after the last war in that area, some years ago, and he is unsure whether his mother is still alive. His father, his paternal uncle, and all his grandparents are dead.
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While the claimant was growing up, his family lived in three refugee camps in Lebanon: first Bint Jlal, then Rashidieh, until that camp was destroyed by Israeli missiles, while they were living there. The claimant was a young child and found the air attacks on the camp very frightening.
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The third camp the family lived in was in Sida. His father taught maths there, informally as Palestinians in Lebanon have no right to work as teachers.
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When the claimant was about 7 years old (so in 1982 or perhaps 1986), the family returned to live in Gaza and remained there until he was approximately 15 years old (1990 or 1994). They lived in another refugee camp there, Jbalia. The claimant was able to attend school in Gaza, but Gaza was occupied by Israeli forces and again, he saw a lot of violence and suffering.
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When the claimant was about 15 years old, his father decided that the family should return to Lebanon. The claimant’s father did not survive to make the journey, but the rest of the family did return to Lebanon where they stayed with one of his father’s brothers.
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Palestinians in Lebanese refugee camps were not allowed to own homes, nor even to make basic repairs to their accommodation to keep them safe. The claimant got into trouble in the refugee camp for bringing in cement during a very cold winter, to undertake urgent repairs to their accommodation, which had a leaking ceiling such that water came in to the living quarters. The Lebanese authorities arrested and detained him: he was beaten in detention. The claimant’s unchallenged account is that such beatings were the norm during detention by the Lebanese authorities.
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In Lebanon, the claimant studied information technology at college: his studies were not UNWRA funded (although they provided some food and cooking utensils). His studies were suspended when a photograph of Yasser Arafat was found on his desk at college. Even if he had been able to complete his studies, the claimant would not have been able to work in IT as Palestinian refugees were excluded from working in professions in Lebanon.
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The claimant became a member of the pro-Fatah movement in Lebanon and expressed support for Yasser Arafat, becoming a member of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), attending Arafat-supporting meetings, and guarding their offices at night. People from Hamas and Jihad approached him many times to tell him to work for them instead, threatening to kill the claimant if he did not comply, but although frightened, he stuck to his beliefs.
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When he was about 17 years old (so in 1992 or 1996) the claimant left Lebanon for good. He did so because of the ill treatment he was receiving in Lebanon and because he had neither rights nor any future in Lebanon. The claimant went to Brazil, travelling through and spending time on the way in Syria, Turkey and Italy, using a false Brazilian passport obtained for him by the agent. Two of his brothers had already reached Brazil where they were living without status. The claimant made no asylum claim in Brazil as his understanding was that there was no international protection system there.
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The claimant then travelled to the United Kingdom on a French passport to which he was not entitled. He claimed asylum on arrival, but without disclosing his travels through Syria, Turkey, Italy and Brazil. The claimant arrived in the United Kingdom on 13 March 2001. Asylum was refused and he was appeal rights exhausted on 18 April 2003, having failed to attend his asylum hearing or arrange representation, through a combination of speaking no English and being unable to afford representation. The claimant wrote to the Secretary of State asking for permission to work, a number of times, but the Secretary of State refused.
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The claimant did not embark, remaining in the United Kingdom unlawfully, using various identities. To survive, he used false documents to work as an office cleaner and a kitchen porter, paying taxes and making national insurance contributions in the false name on a forged passport he had obtained to facilitate working. The claimant used a Greek, a Lebanese, and two Palestinian identities, in one of which he worked, and another, the identity in which this appeal proceeds.
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The claimant was required to report weekly to the Immigration Officers, beginning when he entered the United Kingdom in 2001. He did so until 2007, when he stopped reporting for fear of losing the job he then had: his employer would not give him permission to be absent from work to comply with his reporting conditions.
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The claimant was stopped by the police and arrested, initially in his second Palestinian identity, on 5 June 2008. The claimant later gave the name he now says is his correct identity. The police searched his home and found 8 forged passports and a number of credit and debit cards. The claimant took...
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