AA/02153/2015 — Secretary of State's appeal allowed: biometric/immigration-history evidence undermining an undocumented-Bidoon claim

The Secretary of State appealed a First-tier grant of asylum to Jaber Hamad Mohsen Hamoud Al-Anzi, who claimed to be an undocumented Kuwaiti Bidoon detained in February 2011 after participating in a protest. The Home Office's refusal relied on biometric evidence that the same individual had applied for a US visa in Baghdad using a Kuwaiti passport — the appellant later admitted lying about that fact. THE UPPER TRIBUNAL ALLOWED THE SECRETARY OF STATE'S APPEAL, finding the First-tier judge had failed to give adequate reasons for accepting the appellant's account despite this admitted dishonesty, and remitted the case for a fresh hearing before a different judge. USE IN A REPORT: the counterpoint to AA/05412/2014 above — where a passport/immigration-history document IS properly evidenced (here, corroborated biometric records plus the appellant's own admission), it can be decisive against an undocumented-Bidoon claim; a careful practitioner should address any prior visa/passport applications proactively rather than leaving them for the Home Office to raise.

Counsels early, proactive disclosure of any prior visa or passport history rather than leaving it for the Home Office to discover.