UK Upper Tribunal clarifies protection claims for non-Arab Darfuris in Sudan
Submitted for inclusion by Kuldip Phull. This is an extract of a case originallypublished on Tribunal Decisions on 8 January 2015.
The case relates to a Sudanese non-national non-Arab Darfuri who had been refused asylum notwithstanding the Asylum and Immigration Tribunals decision in AA (Non-Arab Darfuris-relocation) which concluded that ‘that if a claimant from Sudan is a non-Arab Darfuri he must succeed in an international protection claim’.
In response to the First Tier Tribunal’s decision that the applicant was not covered by AA, the Upper Tribunal confirmed that reference in AA to ‘Darfuris’’ ‘is to be understood as an ethnic term relating to origins, not as a geographical term. Accordingly, it covers even Darfuris who were not born in Darfur’ [14]. Thus, even though the applicant was not born in Sudan, if returned he would be perceived to be a non-Arab Darfuri. Given that the applicant’s submissions relate to the fear of persecution on grounds of race within the 1951 Refugee Convention and that the attitude of the Sudanese authorities to non-Arab Darfuris has worsened, the Upper Tribunal set aside the First Tier judgment for legal error and allowed the appeal of the applicant.