Bedford County Council v GE (Eritrea)

Judgment

Sir Ernest Ryder, Senior President:

Introduction:

The appellant local authority, Bedford Borough Council, appeals against a decision of the Administrative Court made on 22 May 2015 which assessed the age of the respondent, GE, and quashed two previous age assessments undertaken by the local authority. The decision was the consequence of earlier Court of Appeal proceedings which remitted the question to the High Court. The question of fact was determined by Ms Alexandra Marks sitting as a deputy judge of the High Court on 26 and 27 March 2015.

In 24 May 2011 GE entered the UK hidden in a lorry. She was arrested at Dover and immediately claimed asylum. She had a screening interview with the UK Border Agency on the same day. She gave an account of her life that has not substantially altered since.

She was born in Eritrea in 1994 and has no siblings. Her father died when she was eight years old. About a year later she moved with her mother and uncle to Sudan. She lived in Sudan for about four years during which time her mother died. When she was twelve she moved to Libya with her uncle. During the next five years she carried out work looking after children and cleaning. When the Libyan war began in 2011 she and her uncle left for Europe. She believes that her uncle’s boat sank on the journey to Italy and she has not seen him since. GE made no asylum claim in Italy but instead travelled from Italy across France to the UK.

On the same day as her arrival in the UK GE was fingerprinted but a document from the Immigration Fingerprint Bureau confirms that the fingerprints could not be searched on the Eurodac system because of “poor quality skin”. The same document recorded GE’s date of birth as 1 January 1993 but, as the judge noted, the provenance of this date is unclear. Also on the same day, the UK Border Agency gave GE a letter which this court has not seen but which apparently stated that: “your physical appearance/demeanour very strongly suggests that you are significantly 18 years of age or over”.

GE was detained at Yarl’s Wood Immigration Detention Centre. On 3 August 2011, she successfully challenged the Home Office’s attempt to remove her to Italy. An earlier hearing in the Administrative Court led to an order that the Secretary of State be restrained from removing her.

The local authority’s first age assessment took place on 24 August 2011. Given the legal principles that are well settled, and to which I shall refer in due course, the jud