A & Ors v The Entry Clearance Officer

Facts

S, an Iranian Kurd born in 2005, reached the UK by dinghy in November 2021 as an unaccompanied minor. He was granted asylum on 8 March 2023 on the basis of his work as a smuggler carrying KDPI leaflets. On 14 November 2023 his parents, A and B, and his younger siblings, C and D (now 11 and 2), applied for entry clearance to join him as family reunion applicants. Their representatives asked the Entry Clearance Officer to wait until their evidence was submitted. On 12 December 2024 the respondent refused the applications without having seen that evidence. The refusal was made under paragraph 5.1 of Appendix Family Reunion because the appellants were not S's children, so the appeal turned on FRP7.1 and Article 8 of the ECHR. The appellants appealed and filed a bundle of 2,375 pages, including reports from an independent social worker, Jane Bartlett, and a psychiatrist, Dr Thomas Hillen. Their skeleton argument said that no credibility issues had been raised. At the hearing, S accepted that his own earlier statements, and those of A and B, had falsely said that the family had been unable to meet him in Iraq in 2024. Passport stamps in the respondent's bundle had exposed that account, and S said he had lied because he was told the applications would otherwise be refused. The appeals were heard at Taylor House on 4 September 2026.