PP (Sri Lanka) v Secretary of State for the Home Department
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
- LADY JUSTICE ARDEN
- LORD JUSTICE FLOYD
- MR JUSTICE BEAN
Areas of Law
- Immigration Law
- Human Rights Law
2014
COURT OF APPEAL (CRIMINAL DIVISION)
United Kingdom
CORAM
AI Generated Summary
The case involved an appeal against decisions by the First-tier and Upper Tribunals, which had found no significant risk to a Tamil woman returning to Sri Lanka despite her history of sexual violence. The appellate court ruled that the Upper Tribunal erred by not considering Tamil women from former conflict zones as a specific risk category. The case was remitted to the Upper Tribunal for a more thorough evaluation.
J U D G M E N T
LADY JUSTICE ARDEN: This is a second appeal over the risk to the appellant of return to Sri Lanka of sexual violence in one of the former conflict zones in Sri Lanka. This risk arises from the rape which she suffered while in detention following the termination of the conflict with the defeat in May 2009 of the LTTE, the Tamil separatist movement. The appellant is herself a Tamil. The basic question is whether there is evidence that there is risk to Tamil women in her circumstances and, if so, whether the Upper Tribunal should have considered this when ruling that there was no significant risk to her on return.
The sexual violence which the appellant suffered is described in the First-tier decision in this matter dated 22 December 2011. The most serious incident occurred in February 2011 while the appellant was in an agent's home waiting for a visa to come to the United Kingdom. The military came to the agent's home, arrested the appellant and took the appellant away. She was accused of being an LTTE escapee, she was interrogated and raped, she was released after 3 days, she became pregnant and after she arrived in the United Kingdom she had a termination.
Following her arrival in the United Kingdom in February 2011 the appellant claimed asylum. The Secretary of State refused her claim on 11 August 2011 with a detailed letter and on the same date removal directions were given. The appellant then appealed to the First-tier Tribunal.
In her decision dated 22 December 2011, Immigration Judge Sommerville accepted that the appellant was a relatively young female Tamil who had claimed asylum abroad. She held that the appellant had identity documents, namely her passport with a student visa endorsed, and that she had left Sri Lanka legally. There was no evidence that she had ever signed a confession. The Immigration Judge accepted that the appellant had been arrested three times by the Sri Lankan authorities and that she was released on at least one of these occasions on payment of a bribe.
Immigration Judge Sommerville found that the appellant was never a member of the LTTE and had never given them support. Immigration Judge Sommerville importantly accepted that the appellant had become pregnant as a result of rape when in detention and that her pregnancy had been terminated. However, the Immigration Judge did not accept all the evidence that the appellant gave. She did not accept that the LTTE had abducted her brother or that he had fought