Migrant can stay after judge confused his Somali clan with Hawaii

Telegraph

27-06-2025

An African asylum seeker has won a reprieve to remain in the UK after an immigration judge confused his Somali clan with the island of Hawaii.
The mix-up between the US state and the Hawiye people was one of a catalogue of 'errors' in a judgment denying the man's claim to stay in in the UK.
The decision also wrongly stated that the asylum seeker's children were born in Egypt instead of Ethiopia, and made a 'bizarre reference to a kookaburra farm', a new ruling has revealed. The kookaburra is a bird native to Australia and New Guinea.
The man, who was given anonymity by the asylum tribunal, will now have his case reheard after it was concluded that Sureta Chana, the judge responsible for the mistakes, showed an 'absence of care'.
The case, disclosed in court papers, is the latest example uncovered by The Telegraph in which illegal migrants or convicted foreign criminals have been able to remain in the UK or halt their removal.
'Significant number of errors'
The African asylum seeker's claim was initially rejected by a First-Tier Tribunal. He had claimed to be originally from Somalia, where he said he was at risk of persecution by the Hawiye clan, one of the largest tribes in the country.
He told the Home Office that he had lived unlawfully in Ethiopia for a number of years before he left because of mistreatment by the Oromo tribe, which makes up more than a third of the population.
British officials believed he was from Ethiopia, not Somalia and the First-Tier Tribunal rejected his claim on the basis that he would be entitled to Ethiopian citizenship.
He appealed and an Upper-Tier Tribunal found there had a 'a significant number of typographical and factual errors' in the judgment, which demonstrated a 'failure to exercise anxious scrutiny'.
First there was the reference to the 'Hawaii' rather than Hawiye clan. It also wrongly stated that the [asylum seeker]'s children were born in Egypt instead of Ethiopia. There was the 'bizarre reference to a 'kookaburra farm'', while the Lower Tribunal had miscalculated 'the length of the [asylum seeker]'s residence in Ethiopia'.
It stated that the appeal had been heard on Jan 1 this year, a date on which the First-Tier Tribunal does not sit. It dated the decision as 28 March 2017, several years before the asylum claim was made.
'Absence of care'
It also found that the judge had made findings about Ethiopian nationality law when the evidence showed he had no right to naturalise as an Ethiopian citizen. The judge also misquoted a previous case and was 'wrongly conflating the [asylum seeker]'s fear of the Oromo tribe in Ethiopia with his fear of the Hawiye clan in Somalia'.
Upper Tribunal Judge Leonie Hirst said: 'The First-Tier Tribunal's decision displays throughout an absence of care, evidenced by the numerous typographical and factual errors identified in the [asylum seeker]'s grounds of appeal. That however is not the only material error in the decision.
'On the issue of the [asylum seeker]'s nationality, which was central to the appeal, the judge appears to have taken judicial notice of Ethiopian nationality law without evidence or submissions on that point.
'Her conclusion that the [asylum seeker] was entitled to Ethiopian citizenship was unsupported by the evidence before her and her reasoning was insufficient to explain how she reached her conclusions.'