Afghan teenager to have asylum claim reconsidered

An Afghan teenager who claims to have fled his homeland because the Taliban wanted to kill him has won a legal bid to have immigration judges reconsider his asylum claim.

The 16-year-old boy, who has not been identified, instructed lawyers to go to Edinburgh’s Court of Session after specialist tribunals ruled he could not remain in the UK.

The teenager told immigration judges he was forced to leave his home in Helmand province because the Taliban murdered his family.

He said the Islamic fundamentalists had also wanted to kill him and he had no other option but to pay an agent to smuggle him out of Afghanistan.

The boy then arrived in Britain hidden in the back of a lorry on May 6 2015.

The then Home Secretary Theresa May granted him discretionary leave to remain in the UK for two years and two months.

However, an immigration judge at a first tier tribunal refused to grant him asylum.

She ruled that she did not find the boy’s account of how he came to be in the UK to be credible.

Appeal judges at an upper tribunal then upheld their colleague’s ruling.

The upper tribunal also refused the boy leave to appeal against its decision.

This prompted lawyers for the boy to go to the Court of Session to argue the immigration judges had misinterpreted the law when considering their client’s asylum claim.

The boy’s legal team ruled international law states the benefit of the doubt should be given to unaccompanied children when concerns about their credibility arise.

In a written judgment issued at the Court of Session yesterday, judge Lord Drummond Young ruled that he agreed with the arguments made by the lawyers acting for the youth.

The judge granted the boy permission to appeal against the upper tribunal’s decision.