Iraqi avoids deportation after claiming he would be killed for affair with colonel's wife

Telegraph

3 hours ago

An Iraqi asylum seeker avoided being removed from the UK after claiming that he had a love affair with the wife of a 'powerful' colonel in his home country.
The Iraqi sought protection in the UK after he arrived by arguing that he could be killed if he was sent back to the Middle Eastern country over his affair.
The man, in his mid-20s, said he fell in love with a young woman in Iraq and had a relationship with her after she married a colonel in the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK).
The Home Office tried to remove the man – named only as 'BM' – over a 'lack of credibility' in his case.
He also lost his case at a lower tier immigration tribunal, following suggestions that the colonel might not even exist.
But he won an appeal at the upper tribunal and has been granted permission to have his case heard again. If he is successful, he could be allowed to stay in the UK.
The case, disclosed in court papers, is the latest example uncovered by The Telegraph where illegal migrants or convicted foreign criminals have been able to remain in the UK or halt their deportations on human rights grounds.
Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, has announced plans to curb judges' powers to block deportations with new legally-enforced 'common sense' rules to clarify how judges interpret the European Convention on Human Rights and strengthen the public interest test.
The court was told that the Iraqi, known as BM to protect his anonymity, claimed protection after he came to the adverse attention of a 'powerful military leader'. The hearing, in Manchester, was told he met and fell in love with a young woman, named only as 'N', in 2018.
It heard that BM's uncle approached N's family to ask if the pair could be married. However, the proposal was refused as N's family had arranged for her to marry a peshmerga colonel in the PUK army.
However, the relationship continued and they planned to elope. Later, BM found out that the colonel had discovered the affair. Fearing being killed, he fled Iraq in October 2020, believing that his situation fell within the scope of the Refugee Convention.
The Home Office said it did not accept that BM was at any current risk of serious harm, given that he had not provided any evidence about the colonel.
BM took the case to an appeal at the first-tier tribunal. He provided evidence that included photographs of a man in military uniform, which he identified as the colonel.
He also showed that N had contacted him and asked him to come to Kirkuk, an Iraqi city of around one million people. She said they would go to Sulaymaniyah, near the Iranian border, from there.
'Lack of credibility'
However, the first-tier tribunal found a lack of credibility in this claim, given that the entire area is under the control of the PUK. There were also inconsistencies in respect to certain dates provided.
He also said he had lost his ID card in 2017. The tribunal questioned how he had lived for three years without a card. It also said that he could have claimed asylum in France on his way to the UK.
He lost his case but appealed to the upper tribunal where Judge Gaenor Bruce found that newly provided Facebook images were sufficient evidence that the colonel existed, given their consistency with BM's asylum interview.
She also concluded that the couple intended to elope to neighbouring Iran and that this is why they met in Sulaymaniyah.
Judge Bruce concluded: '[BM] submitted that his immutable characteristic was the fact that he had been in an extramarital affair, contrary to the social norms in Iraqi Kurdistan, and offending the 'honour' of N's family and husband.'
The original decision to not allow his asylum on human rights grounds was set aside with a new decision to be made. The Iraqi man's anonymity was upheld.