David Jones of Garden Court Chambers acted for the claimant in this important judgment for those concerned with Iraqi cases and for other protection claimants where there are obstacles to removal.
In the case of R (on the application of H) v The Secretary of State for the Home Department (application of AA (Iraq CG)) IJR [2017] UKUT 00119 (IAC), Upper Tribunal Judge Lane revisited his own decision in the country guidance case of AA (Article 15(c)) Iraq CG [2015] UKUT 00544 (IAC) in this judicial review, emphasising that a proper reading of that determination did not enable decisions makers to suspend their assessment of an applicant's entitlement to international protection merely because they could not currently be returned, owing to a lack of particular travel documentation.
Rather, it obliged a thorough and particular review of the individual circumstances of that applicant in order to determine whether a claim to international protection could be made out by reference to other factors apart from documentation, such as ethnicity, gender, age and strength of attachments.
David Jones is a member of the Garden Court Chambers Immigration Team.
The full judgment is available.