HM v The Secretary of State for the Home Department

Facts

The appellant, HM, is a citizen of Afghanistan who made a protection claim on 3 December 2022. His case was that his father had worked for the local police in Afghanistan before the Taliban returned to power, that the family's lands had been taken by the brother of a Taliban member, that this man was later killed and his father accused of the killing, and that the family were consequently threatened, forcing him to flee. The Secretary of State accepted that he is a national of Afghanistan but refused the claim on 17 September 2024, rejecting the remaining material facts largely on credibility grounds. He 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. At the hearing in Birmingham, with the assistance of a Pashto interpreter, the parties agreed the issues: nationality was accepted, the Convention reason relied on was imputed political opinion, the feared treatment taken at its highest would amount to persecution, and if the facts were accepted there would be neither sufficiency of protection nor the possibility of internal relocation. Article 8 was not advanced as a standalone matter and stood or fell with the protection appeal. The single disputed issue was the appellant's credibility.