RH v The Secretary of State for the Home Department

Facts

The appellant, RH, is a citizen of Albania who claimed protection in the United Kingdom on 3 October 2022. His account was that, as a 17-year-old wishing to study a painting and sculpting course at the Tirana School of Arts, and unable to meet the tuition and living costs, he borrowed the equivalent of £3,500 from men he later learned were involved in serious organised criminality. When they demanded early repayment and he could not pay, they threatened him with violence, and he fled Albania, travelling through Europe and crossing the Channel by small boat as a child. He was placed in foster care in London, where he says an older Albanian man told him he owed money for the journey, took him to a house in the north of England and required him to tend cannabis plants. In August 2023 the house was raided and he was arrested and charged with cultivation of cannabis; a referral to the National Referral Mechanism followed, which produced a negative reasonable grounds decision. The Secretary of State refused the protection claim on 27 January 2025, disputing his credibility and his status as a victim of trafficking. He appealed to the First-tier Tribunal under the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002, appearing in person at Taylor House.