United Kingdom Asylum and Immigration Tribunal

AH (Somali) [2002] UKIAT 02545 (11 July 2002)

IMMIGRATION APPEAL TRIBUNAL

Date of hearing: 08/05/2002

Date Determination notified: 11 July 2002

Before
His Honour Judge E Cotran (Chair) Mr A G Jeevanjee
Between

 

	APPELLANT
and
Secretary of State for the Home Department	RESPONDENT

DETERMINATION AND REASONS
1. This is an appeal against the determination of an Adjudicator, Mrs D.E. Taylor, who dismissed the appellant's appeal from the decision of the respondent refusing him asylum in the United Kingdom.
2. The sole issue is whether the appellant is a Somali of the Ashraf tribe as claimed. The Secretary of State was not satisfied that he was on the basis that he did not speak Somali-only Arabic. The Adjudicator, though accepting that speaking Somali was not determinative of the matter, thought that his whole claim 'from start to finish is a complete fabrication.'
3. With respect, they are both clearly wrong. The appellant's claim was supported by:

'i) a witness who gave evidence at the appeal and was himself a refugee from the Ashraf clan who was a friend of the appellant's father and had met the appellant in Mogadishu shortly after his father's death in 1996;

ii) the fact that his last address in Mogadishu was in the area were Ashraf clan members reside;

iii) his detailed knowledge of Somalia, its recent political history (questions 24-30, 40) details of places in Mogadishu (questions 8-11), languages spoken in Somalia (35), the minority clans (38039);

iv) his Arabic descent and light skin

v) The internal consistency of his account and its consistency with the background events in Somalia;

vi) Injuries that he sustained in the attack that resulted in his father's and his brother's death which included bullet wound scars on his left and injury to his head.'

4. The claim is now further supported by a birth certificate and a statement of Professor Ioan M. Lewis, FIBA, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology of the LSE (University of London) and a leading expert on the Somali people.
5. On our review of the evidence, we find that the appellant was a Somali of the Ashraf tribal clan.
6. The appeal is allowed.

HIS HONOUR JUDGE EUGENE COTRAN

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