MS v The Secretary of State for the Home Department

Facts

The appellant, a Moroccan national born in 1992, entered the United Kingdom on 14 April 2022 on a visit visa and claimed asylum on 29 November 2022. She said she feared being killed by MA, her boyfriend of about two years, whom she had discovered to be a drug dealer. After she left Morocco without telling him, MA telephoned her, told her to return and threatened to kill her mother and sister if she did not. He also said he would kill her if she married someone else. On 19 April 2024 the Secretary of State refused her protection claim and the associated human rights claim. She appealed under the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002; because her claim was made after 28 June 2022, sections 30 to 39 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 applied. She repeatedly failed to comply with directions to provide a bundle, a skeleton argument and her evidence. A same-sex relationship mentioned at a case management hearing was never particularised, so it was not considered as a new matter. The day before the substantive hearing, her representatives applied to adjourn because they had no instructions. The judge refused that application. Neither the appellant nor any representative attended the hearing on 2 September 2026, and the Tribunal proceeded in her absence on the respondent's evidence.