AA v The Secretary of State for the Home Department

Facts

The appellant, AA, is an adult Iraqi citizen and ethnic Kurd from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. He left Iraq in September 2023, arrived in the United Kingdom in November 2023 and claimed asylum shortly afterwards, his screening interview taking place on 13 November 2023 and his substantive asylum interviews in September 2024. His claim rested on a premarital relationship with a woman in Iraq whose father he said was a senior and influential figure connected with the Kurdistan Democratic Party: he claimed the relationship was discovered, that the woman's family killed her, that her father threatened to kill him, and that his own family had disowned him and would deliver him to her family. He later advanced a further claim based on political activity undertaken in the United Kingdom with a Kurdish organisation opposed to the principal governing parties in the Kurdistan Region, and said he could not safely return because his Iraqi identity document remained at the family home. The Secretary of State for the Home Department refused his protection and human rights claims on 12 November 2024 and he appealed on 19 November 2024 under section 82 of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. The appeal was heard as a hybrid hearing at Birmingham on 8 September 2026, with oral evidence from the appellant and two supporting witnesses giving evidence remotely.