RA v The Secretary of State for the Home Department

Facts

The appellant, RA, a citizen of Bangladesh who was granted anonymity, arrived in the United Kingdom on 7 June 2022 with leave to enter as a student valid until 13 September 2023, having paid £8,500 towards his course fees. He did not complete his course and claimed asylum on 3 February 2023, saying that he had realised in December 2022 that he could not return. He claimed to have joined the Bangladesh Jatiotabadi Chatra Dal, the BNP student wing, on 1 July 2019, and to fear the Awami League and one of its members, Ali Ahmed, in particular; armed men had come to the family home and his mother had paid them to leave. He said false charges were pending against him, producing an FIR, a charge sheet and an arrest warrant, and relied in the alternative on Article 8 of the Human Rights Convention. The Secretary of State refused the protection claim on 30 April 2024, conceding identity and nationality but accepting nothing else, and rejecting the account as internally and externally inconsistent. The appeal was brought under the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, with sections 30 to 35 of the Nationality and Borders Act 2022 applying. The appellant did not attend the hearing at Hatton Cross and had ceased to instruct two firms of solicitors in turn.