AM v The Secretary of State for the Home Department

Facts

The appellant, AM, is a citizen of Somalia who claimed protection in the United Kingdom on 16 September 2024. His account was that Al-Shabab had come to his village while he was away and taken the youth, giving his mother three days to hand him over; that he later witnessed two young men of the Hawiye tribe kill a government soldier, told his mother and then informed the army; and that Al-Shabab learned he had been the informant, sentenced him to death, and that members of the Hawiye clan also threatened to kill him. He said he was therefore at risk on return by reason of his race or imputed political opinion, alternatively that he qualified for humanitarian protection. The Secretary of State refused the claim on 30 December 2024, rejecting the account as not credible and relying on purported inconsistencies, including his account of his clan, of the Istunka, of the enforcement of Zakat by Al-Shabab, and his failure to claim asylum in France. The appellant appealed to the First-tier Tribunal under the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, the claim having been made after 28 June 2022 so that sections 30 to 39 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 applied. The appeal was heard at Priory Court, Birmingham on 2 September 2025, with an anonymity direction made.