Tribunal allows Iraqi man's asylum appeal over death threats after affair

Right · 2An Iraqi man in his twenties, identified only as HI, won an asylum appeal at the First-tier Tribunal in Manchester, with Judge C R Cole accepting he had faced death threats after an affair with another man's wife was exposed. 1 2 Right · 2HI arrived in the UK in November 2021, and his asylum and human rights claims were rejected in August 2024 after Home Office officials challenged his account as inconsistent and implausible. 1 2 Right · 1The tribunal heard that his relationship with the woman began before she was married; her father arranged for her to marry another man, but the affair continued until the husband discovered the pair. HI said he escaped the confrontation but the woman was shot. 1

Right · 1The husband was said to be "well-connected and powerful" within the Kurdistan Democratic Party; HI fled to a friend's house and later learnt that death threats had been made against him at his family home. 1 Right · 2Judge Cole called HI's account "plausible" and "sufficiently detailed and consistent to be accepted", noting the detail HI gave on who was where, what lights were on and how the husband reacted. 1 2 Right · 1The judge found it "reasonably likely" that HI would be seriously harmed on return to Iraq by his partner's husband and family. The Home Office accepted that, if the account was believed, HI would lack sufficient protection and could not safely relocate elsewhere in Iraq. 1

Right · 2HI travelled through France without claiming asylum. The judge said he had an opportunity to do so and that his reasons were "not objectively reasonable", but held this undermined his credibility only "to a limited extent". 2 1 Right · 2HI also succeeded on a separate ground: the judge accepted his opposition to the authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan was "genuine" and that he would face serious harm if he expressed those views there. The Home Office had suggested his activism was an attempt to "bolster a weak asylum claim". 1 2 Right · 1The appeal was allowed on asylum and human rights grounds in a decision signed on 24 October, after a hearing on 20 October. 1

Right · 1The Express added context on Channel crossings: more than 700 people arrived illegally on one day last month, the year's highest daily figure, while the government said progress was "indisputable", with a provisional 2026 total of around 20,935, down 43% year on year. 2