XW v The Secretary of State for the Home Department

Facts

The appellant, XW, is a Chinese national in her late thirties who entered the United Kingdom in December 2008 aged 20. A Home Office document issued at the airport recorded that an asylum claim was made on the day of her arrival; the respondent's records showed that claim was treated as withdrawn in June 2009 because she had absconded. She made the protection claim underlying this appeal on 1 September 2022, and the Secretary of State for the Home Department refused her protection and human rights claims on 15 January 2024. Her case was that the Chinese authorities sought to take her family home without compensation in 2008, that she was detained after complaining, required to pay for her release and introduced to loan sharks who assaulted her and threatened to force her into prostitution. She left China through a people smuggler and said that, on arrival here, she was confined and compelled to process tobacco without payment for about three years. She feared the loan sharks would kill or seriously harm her on return. She also relied on her private life and her relationship with her partner, a British citizen. The appeal was heard at Coventry on 10 September 2026, with evidence from the appellant through a Mandarin interpreter and from her partner.