Upper Tribunal (Immigration and asylum chamber), 2023-11-09, UI-2022-001183
| Appeal Number | UI-2022-001183 |
| Hearing Date | 16 March 2023 |
| Date | 09 November 2023 |
| Published date | 24 November 2023 |
| Status | Unreported |
| Court | Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) |
|
|
|
Appeal No: UI-2022-001183 (DC/50081/2021) |
IN THE UPPER TRIBUNAL
IMMIGRATION AND ASYLUM CHAMBER
Case No: UI-2022-001183
First-tier Tribunal No: DC/50081/2021
THE IMMIGRATION ACTS
Decision & Reasons Issued:
9th November 2023
Before
UPPER TRIBUNAL JUDGE O’CALLAGHAN
Between
MERIDAN CENA
(NO ANONYMITY ORDER MADE)
Appellant
and
THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT
Respondent
Representation:
For the Appellant: Ms S Ferguson, Counsel, instructed by Shan & Co Solicitors
For the Respondent: Ms S Cunha, Senior Presenting Officer
Heard at Field House on 16 March 2023
DECISION AND REASONS
-
Introduction
-
By his appeal the appellant challenges a decision of the respondent to deprive him of his British nationality under section 40(3) of the British Nationality Act 1981.
-
He asserts that he is a national of Kosovo named ‘Meridan Cena’ who was born on born on 27 May 1981 and is presently aged 42.
-
The Secretary of State asserts that the appellant is an Albanian national named ‘Meridan Cenalija’, born on 27 May 1979 and aged 44.
-
The focus of the parties before this Tribunal was upon the condition precedent to deprivation.
-
Appeal history
-
By a decision dated 1 February 2022, the First-tier Tribunal (Judge Buckwell) allowed the appellant’s appeal against the respondent’s decision to deprive him of British citizenship. The respondent was granted permission to appeal and by a decision sent to the parties on 15 November 2022 the Upper Tribunal set aside the decision of the First-tier Tribunal with no preserved findings of fact.
-
The First-tier Tribunal materially erred by placing weight upon the appellant having a ‘current’ and ‘valid’ Kosovan passport which was considered to verify the appellant possessing Kosovan citizenship, without adequately engaging with the respondent’s case that the Kosovan authorities have cancelled the appellant’s registration of birth. Additionally, the First-tier Tribunal did not adequately engage with the guidance provided in Ciceri (deprivation of citizenship appeals: principles) [2021] UKUT 00238 (IAC), [2021] Imm. A.R. 1909.
-
The resumed hearing took place at Field House on 16 March 2023. There has been a delay in promulgating this decision consequent to the Upper Tribunal awaiting potentially relevant judgments from the Court of Appeal: Shyti v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWCA Civ 770 (4 July 2023) and Ahmed v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2023] EWCA Civ 1087 (28 September 2023). Their ratio is not directly relevant to the considerations arising in this appeal.
-
Background
-
The appellant entered the United Kingdom on 2 November 1998 and claimed asylum. He stated that he was an unaccompanied minor. When completing a Minors Self-Completion Questionnaire submitted to the respondent on 15 December 1998, he gave his identity as ‘Meridan Cena’. In a form completed by a legal representative, the appellant detailed that he was born in ‘Grecin’, a village in Kosovo, then an autonomous province of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. He stated that he was born on 27 May 1981, and so a minor aged 17.
-
He provided details to the respondent as to his mother, father, brother and sister, namely ‘Hyre Cena’, ‘Uke Cena’, ‘Urim Cena’ and ‘Natasha Cena’. He stated that they all resided in Kosovo. His siblings were 29 and 34 years old respectively. He later informed the respondent in 2019 that he has a second sister, ‘Ajman Cena’, subsequently stating that he had not provided her details during his asylum claim because he did not know she was alive at the time.
-
The appellant set out by means of a statement accompanying his Questionnaire a series of events which he said amounted to persecution at the hands of the Yugoslav authorities. His father was an active member of the Democratic League of Kosova (‘LDK’) leading to the family home being raided on many occasions. He became involved with the LDK and he distributed leaflets for the party along with his brother and a nephew. When undertaking this task, they were seen by Serbian police officers. Whilst he was able to escape along with his brother, his nephew did not. Fearing that the police would look for him, the brothers went into hiding with a relative until hearing news that the family village had been attacked by Serbian special military forces. The appellant returned home to aid his parents and then fled to the mountains. After a month, he went to the home of an uncle where he stayed for two months. He left Kosovo in October 1998, crossing the border into Macedonia. The same day he was hidden in the back of a lorry and travelled for eight days without leaving the vehicle. He then transferred to a second vehicle where he remained for two days until arriving in this country.
-
Upon accepting the appellant’s stated identity and history, the respondent recognised him as a refugee and granted him indefinite leave to remain on 6 May 1999.
-
In 2007, the appellant sponsored, in the identity of ‘Meridan Cena’, an application by his then spouse, an Ecuadorian national, for leave to remain. The couple later separated.
-
The appellant applied for naturalisation on 1 October 2009, in the identity of ‘Meridan Cena’. The respondent decided to grant the appellant British citizenship on 15 April 2010 and the appellant attended a naturalisation ceremony on 24 May 2010.
-
On 22 November 2018 a referral was made to the respondent as it was believed that the appellant had obtained British citizenship by deception. The Albanian authorities confirmed that following checks no national was registered on the National Civil Register of Kosovo with the details ‘Meridan Cena’, born on 27 May 1981 in Greqin, Kosovo, with a father named ‘Uk’ and a mother named ‘Hyre’. The respondent informed the appellant that checks revealed that he was recorded on the Albanian National Civil Status Register as ‘Meridan Cenalija’, born in Kukes, Albania on 27 May 1979. His father’s name was recorded as ‘Uk’ and his mother’s name as ‘Hyre’. The Albanian authorities provided an Albanian birth certificate and an Albanian family certificate recording his parents as ‘Uk Cenalija’ and ‘Hyre Cenalija’.
-
The respondent wrote to the appellant on 5 April 2019, detailing that she was considering deprivation action. The appellant’s various responses, and documentary evidence presented to the respondent, are considered below.
-
Respondent’s decision
-
The respondent’s notice of decision to deprive the appellant of British nationality is dated 26 March 2021. It runs to forty-nine paragraphs over fifteen pages. At its core the respondent considered the appellant to have deliberately used a false identity to obtain ILR and then maintained the false identity to obtain British citizenship.
-
It is appropriate to observe the following paragraphs of the decision, absent references to various annexes:
‘16. On November 2018, a referral was made to the Home Office as it was believed that you had obtained British citizenship by deception. Checks had revealed that you were recorded on the Albanian Civil Registry as Meridan Cenalija, born 27 May 1979, in Kukes, Albania. It was believed that you had falsely claimed to be a minor from Kosovo when you applied for asylum and that you had consistently provided false names for your parents throughout your dealings with the Home Office. A referral had been made to Tirana to conduct birth checks and they confirmed on 17 December 2018 that there was no national registered on the National Civil Register of Kosovo with the details Meridan Cena, born 27 May 1981 in Greqin, Kosovo, father’s name Uk and mother’s name Hyre. They were able to confirm, however, that there was an Albanian national registered on the National Civil Register of Albania with the details Meridan Cenalija, born 27 May 1979, father’s name UK and mother’s name Hyre … The document provided by Tirana includes a photograph of you … To support this, they also provided an Albanian birth certificate … and an Albanian family certificate … which confirmed your genuine identity as Meridan Cenalija, born 27 May 1979 in Kukes, Albania, your father’s name as Uk Cenalija, born 12 February 1930 and your mother’s name as Hyre Cenalija, born 5 June 1935. This showed discrepancies with the information given throughout your dealings with the Home Office, and on your Form AN … in order to naturalise as a British citizen, where you gave your details as Meridan Cena, born 27 May 1981 in Greqin, Kosova. It is believed that you used this false identity deliberately to obtain refugee and ILR status, and then maintained it in order to obtain British citizenship status that you would otherwise not have been entitled to, had your genuine identity been known. Chapter 55,7 sets out ‘If the relevant facts, had they been known at the time of the application for citizenship was considered, would have affected the decision to grant citizenship via naturalisation or registration, the caseworker should consider deprivation’ (Annex Z, page 6,...
To continue reading
Request your trial