UK uses cookies to make the site simpler. Find out more about cookies. Although both parties made an application for permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal and both applications were granted permission I shall describe the parties as they were described before the First-tier Tribunal, that is Ms O as the appellant and the Secretary of State as the respondent.
The appellant is a citizen of Somalia born on 11 October and she appealed against the respondent's decision of 16 January refusing her claim on asylum, humanitarian protection and human rights grounds. The appellant arrived in the United Kingdom on 7 November without valid documentation and was refused entry but claimed asylum upon refusal of entry. Her claim was refused on 12 March Her appeal against that refusal was dismissed in a determination promulgated by Immigration Judge G J Napthine in May In the decision, Judge Napthine found that the appellant did not belong to a minority clan.
On 23 January the appellant's solicitors wrote on her behalf with further submissions which gave rise to the decision under challenge. The refusal letter by the Secretary of State relied on the previous finding of Judge Napthine such that the appellant did not belong to a minority clan and further the decision relied on the background evidence indicating the absence of clan militias in Mogadishu and the absence of clan-based discriminatory treatment even for minority clan members.
The respondent also referred to the existence of the appellant's uncle, identified by Judge Napthine's decision, and whom the appellant claimed had now relocated to Saudi Arabia. The appellant appealed and the matter came before First-tier Tribunal Judge Carroll who dismissed the claim on the Refugee Convention grounds but allowed the appeal on humanitarian protection and human rights grounds.
Judge Carroll applied the principles of Devaseelan [] UKIAT and cited the relevant findings of Judge Napthine such that the appellant was over 18 when she arrived in the UK, had access to funds during her movements between Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda, that she would be returned to Mogadishu as an adult member and as someone who is not a member of a minority clan but who has family in Mogadishu.
