PBA v The Secretary of State for The Home Department

Facts

The appellant, a Ghanaian national referred to as P B A, appealed against the Secretary of State's refusal of her protection claim, made on 11 June 2024, the underlying claim dating back to July 2023. Her case was that her father had forced her to marry R.D. to settle a family debt, that she had continued a relationship with another man, I.P., and had travelled to the United Kingdom with her husband in February 2023 already pregnant by I.P. She said her husband abandoned her on learning of the pregnancy and that his family, of the Dagomba tribe, had threatened her and her mother, and would subject her daughter to female genital mutilation on return. The procedural history was protracted: a final hearing before Judge Phillips on 22 December 2025 was ineffective after the Respondent produced a purported divorce certificate three days earlier, and a further hearing before Judge Heaven on 17 April 2026 was also ineffective when the Respondent withdrew a concession, put credibility in issue and sought an adjournment; Judge Rhys-Davies ordered the Home Office to pay the wasted costs. The Respondent had earlier accepted the forced marriage and the threats but withdrew that concession, relying on an entry clearance application of 11 October 2022 in which the appellant had described another man, G.Q., as her partner.