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Independent legal advice & representation from the Greater Manchester Immigration Aid Unit
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The following content is the main page content.Case Studies
Josephine
Josephine was only 6 years old when both her parents were killed in Angola's civil war. She is from Cabinda, which is a part of Angola which is seeking independence and has been the scene of a long running conflict as a result. Josephine cannot remember exactly what happened to her parents, but she thinks they were shot by the police. She was taken in by an orphanage run by a priest after the death of her parents. When Josephine was 14 years old the priest asked her and the other orphans to help him deliver opposition political leaflets. She did this. Not long afterwards, the orphanage was attacked by the police and burnt down. Josephine and the other children escaped with the help of the priest. The priest realised that Josephine was in danger and made arrangements for her to be brought to the UK. The man who brought her abandoned her outside the Home Office in Liverpool.
When Josephine applied for asylum, the Home Office did not believe that she was only 14 years old. Social Services agreed with the Home Office, so Josephine was treated as an adult and put in a house with adult asylum seekers and nobody to look after her. Josephine came to GMIAU for help, and we commissioned an independent assessment of her age. The doctor believed that she was only 14, and as a result Social Services agreed to look after her.
The Home Office granted Josephine permission to stay in the UK until she was 18 years old, but they refused to recognise her as a refugee. They intended to send her back to Angola as soon as she turned 18. With our help, Josephine appealed against this decision. We represented her in court and managed to persuade the judge that to return Josephine to Angola with no family to look after her would leave her vulnerable to homelessness and sexual exploitation. The judge allowed the appeal and Josephine has been granted refugee status. She will now be able to stay in the UK permanently, and has a chance to rebuild her life.
Peter
Peter is a young man from Zimbabwe. A victim of the country's economic crisis, he was forced to try and make a living by illegally panning for gold. He was not interested in politics, but his four childhood friends were all members of the MDC. As a result, he was suspected of supporting the MDC as well. In Mugabe's Zimbabwe, mere suspicion is enough to lead to serious mistreatment. The police arrested Peter's four friends and came to his house to arrest him too. He managed to escape and fled the country to South Africa. He then travelled to the UK using a false South African passport. When he arrived at Manchester Airport he applied for asylum. Instead of having his asylum claim dealt with, he was arrested for using a false passport and charged with a criminal offence. His criminal solicitors wrongly advised him that he should plead guilty and he was sentenced to 12 months in prison. In fact, Peter had a defence - people seeking asylum are not supposed to be punished for coming to the UK illegally, as they have no other way of getting here.
At the end of Peter's prison sentence, the Home Office decided to deport him to Zimbabwe despite the risk of serious mistreatment that he faced there, and detained him in a detention centre. While still in prison Peter asked GMIAU for help. We made an application to the court for him to be released on bail, and this application was granted. Peter was finally released after nearly 7 months in prison, in the country that he had come to as a safe haven. However, his problems were not over, as the Home Office still intended to deport him to Zimbabwe. With the help of GMIAU, Peter appealed against the decision to deport him to Zimbabwe. We represented him at the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal and his appeal was successful. He will now be granted refugee status.
Mohamed
Mohamed is from Somalia. He fled the civil war that has been going on there since 1991. He is a member of a small clan, which cannot protect itself from the larger clans who are in control. Mohamed was lucky - he was granted refugee status by the Home Office. But he had had to leave his family behind - his wife, his four young daughters, and two young nephews who had been been part of his family for many years following the death of their parents. When Mohamed first arrived in the UK he did not know where his family was - he was overjoyed when he learnt that they were in a refugee camp in Ethiopia.
As a refugee, Mohamed has the right to family reunion - his wife and children should be allowed to join him in the UK. Mohamed's wife and children went to the British Embassy in Addis Ababa to apply for visas to come to the UK. The applications were refused by the Embassy, who did not believe that Mohamed's wife and children were really related to him, as they had no birth or marriage certificates. The Embassy refused to carry out DNA tests. This is often a problem for people from Somalia, who rarely have official documents as there is no functioning government. With the help of GMIAU, Mohamed's wife and children appealed against the decision. We helped them to obtain the necessary DNA evidence to prove the family relationships. The appeals were successful, and the family has now been reunited in the UK.
Nasrin
Nasrin is from Iran. When she was 21, she came under pressure from her family to marry. She did not want to marry, preferring to pursue a career, but felt she had no choice - women do not have many options in Iran. Nasrin's husband was violent to her from the very beginning. He would beat her up every day, causing serious injuries - on one occasion he broke her arm, on another occasion he pushed her down the stairs and broke her ankle. He also raped her many times. Nasrin was not allowed to work, to leave the house alone, or to have any contact with her family and friends. When Nasrin's son Mojtaba was born two years later, Nasrin's husband was violent to him as well. Nasrin endured this treatment for a long time, because she hoped her husband would change.
Nasrin tried to get help from the police. She went to the police station to file a complaint. She was told that she was not allowed to file a complaint without her husband being present. In Iran a woman's husband is her legal guardian, and she cannot do anything without his permission. Domestic violence is not even illegal, and it is almost impossible for a woman to obtain a divorce. Nasrin tried to go back to her own family, but they were powerless to protect her.
After enduring 5 years of relentless abuse, Nasrin came to the UK with her son to visit her sister. While in the UK she heard that her husband had accused her of adultery and child kidnapping, and that the court had issued a summons against her. If she went back to Iran, Nasrin faced not only the violence of her husband, but losing her son as custody would be awarded to the father. She claimed asylum.
Nasrin's asylum application was refused. The Home Office said that if her husband had really been abusive, she would not have waited for five years to leave him. With the help of GMIAU Nasrin's appeal was successful. We represented her in court, and helped her to obtain the expert evidence about the Iranian legal system which was necessary to show that she could not get protection from the police, and expert evidence to show that victims of domestic violence do put up with years of abuse before leaving. Nasrin and Mojtaba now have refugee status and will be able to stay in the UK, although it will take them a long time to recover from their experiences.
The names and certain details in these accounts have been altered to protect the identity of the individuals concerned.