BF v The Secretary of State for the Home Department

Facts

BF, an Iraqi national, claimed asylum in the United Kingdom on 14 October 2022. His father, F, had been involved in a car accident in which G was killed. The appellant said that G's family, who he described as influential, came to the family home with armed individuals and then threatened him and his father by telephone. He said he hid at an agent's house for about two weeks before leaving Iraq with the agent's help, that the agent took his documents, that he has no family in Iraq and that he lost contact with his father on the journey to the UK. The Secretary of State for the Home Department refused his protection and human rights claims on 20 August 2024. He appealed under section 82(1) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002. At the hearing in Birmingham the issues were narrowed considerably. The Respondent accepted the fatal accident. She did not concede adverse interest or influence, did not accept that a Convention reason (membership of a particular social group as a potential victim of a blood feud) was engaged, and relied on state protection, internal relocation to the IKR and section 8 of the Asylum and Immigration (Treatment of Claimants) Act 2004. She conceded that protection and relocation would be unavailable if the account of a blood feud or of the family's influence were accepted, and that a credible account of lacking documents would carry the appeal. The parties agreed that the appeal turned on credibility.