LR v The Secretary of State for the Home Department

Facts

LR, an Albanian national born on 27 May 2005 and from the outskirts of Tirana, left Albania in November 2021, aged 16, with his abusive father and travelled to Belgium for medical treatment. He escaped from his father there and fell in with a group of Albanian men who had befriended him, only to be forced to work without pay in a warehouse until December 2021, when arrangements were made to sell him to another group who would put him to work in cannabis cultivation in the United Kingdom. He escaped en route, entered this country concealed in a lorry on 5 January 2022, escaped a further group of Albanian men, spoke to the police about his experiences and claimed asylum on 1 February 2022. The respondent accepted that he was a victim of domestic violence and of trafficking, but refused the claim by letter dated 14 February 2023 on the basis that there was a sufficiency of protection in Albania. The First-tier Tribunal dismissed the protection appeal on 25 March 2024 while allowing it on Article 8 ECHR grounds. On 6 December 2024 the Upper Tribunal set the protection decision aside by consent for legal error and retained the appeal as a vehicle for country guidance on Albanian male victims of trafficking. Having been granted leave to remain, the appellant served notice under section 104(4B) of the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2022 ('NABA') to pursue his protection appeal alone.