QR v The Secretary of State for the Home Department

Facts

The appellant, QR, is an Iranian national of Kurdish ethnicity who worked as a Kolbar and left Iran unlawfully. He applied for leave to remain on 2 May 2024, and the Secretary of State for the Home Department refused that application by a decision dated 1 July 2025, against which he appealed to the First-tier Tribunal on protection and human rights grounds. His case was that he had smuggled political materials — KDPI material — into Iran, that this had come to the attention of the Iranian authorities, and that his Kolbar group had been involved in a confrontation with them. He also relied on political activity undertaken in the United Kingdom, namely attendance at demonstrations and posts on his Facebook account; although this was a new matter, the respondent's review granted consent for the Tribunal to consider it. He further asserted that there would be very significant obstacles to his reintegration in Iran. The respondent accepted his nationality, his Kurdish ethnicity, his work as a Kolbar and his unlawful exit, but disputed the smuggling account, the genuineness of his political activity in the UK and whether the authorities would identify him as an activist, relying too on his failure to claim asylum in France. The appeal was heard at Columbus House on 9 September 2026 before First-tier Tribunal Judge Webb, as a hybrid hearing with a Kurdish Sorani interpreter attending by video.