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England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions |
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You are here: BAILII >> Databases >> England and Wales Court of Appeal (Civil Division) Decisions >> Davila-Puga, R (on the application of) v Immigration Appeal Tribunal [2001] EWCA Civ 931 (25 May 2001) URL: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2001/931.html Cite as: [2001] EWCA Civ 931 |
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COURT OF APPEAL (CIVIL DIVISION)
ON APPEAL FROM THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
ADMINISTRATIVE COURT
(Mr Justice Elias)
Strand London WC2 Friday, 25th May 2001 |
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B e f o r e :
LORD JUSTICE CLARKE and
LORD JUSTICE LAWS
____________________
IN THE MATTER OF AN APPLICATION FOR JUDICIAL REVIEW | ||
THE QUEEN | ||
-v- | ||
IMMIGRATION APPEAL TRIBUNAL | Respondent | |
ex parte JOSE VICENTE DAVILA-PUGA | ||
Applicant/Appellant |
____________________
Smith Bernal Reporting Limited
190 Fleet Street London EC4A 2AG
Tel: 020 7421 4040 Fax: 020 7831 8838
(Official Shorthand Writers to the Court)
Miss L Giovannetti (instructed by the Treasury Solicitor, London SW1) appeared on behalf of the Respondent Defendant.
____________________
Crown Copyright ©
"4. ... He completed a proforma questionnaire and subsequently, on 21st October 1995, he was interviewed about his asylum claim and presented some 14 documents in support of the application.
5. On the proforma questionnaire he had indicated that he feared attacks by a group because of information he was alleged to have passed to the government. In the fuller interview, however, he indicated that he feared he would be subject to attack by those connected with the government because of information that he was passing to third parties about government matters. In fact, no decision was taken in connection with that original asylum application before he withdrew it and returned voluntarily to Ecuador. That was on 26th October 1995. His evidence was that he had returned to Ecuador after being told by his wife that a person with links with the government had assured her that the government was no longer interested in him and that he would be safe in Ecuador.
6. In November 1995, whilst in Ecuador, he made enquiries at the British Embassy in Quito as to the possibility of claiming asylum in the United Kingdom with his family. He once more came back to the United Kingdom on 10th February 1996, this time accompanied by his wife and four children. He claimed asylum for himself and for his dependents, with the exception of his eldest daughter. She claimed asylum in her own right but, in fact, in February 1998 gave up her application and returned to Ecuador.
7. When he came back to this country in February 1996, he completed a further proforma questionnaire. On 4th March he was again interviewed about his asylum claim and presented two further documents in addition to the 14 documents relied on at the time of the earlier application. The basis of his application for asylum relied upon the following facts. He said he had been a civil servant working in the office of the President of Ecuador from 1976 until 1993, serving as Accountant General to the Presidency from 1984 to 1993. For part of this time he had studied law part-time at the Central University in Quito. In 1985, he says he was suspected of passing information about government corruption to a militant student organisation called the Student Left Front (FIE). He said that he supported this organisation and was active within it, but he was not a member as such because, as a civil servant, he was not permitted to belong to a political party.
8. He said that he was allowed to continue in his post because he produced a letter from a senior university official certifying that he was not an FIE militant, but he remained nonetheless under suspicion of having left wing political sympathies. I should add that he subsequently indicated that the letter he had obtained from the university official was in fact fraudulent, in the sense that he had been involved with the FIE as a member but he feared that he would lose his job if that were known, so he persuaded the university authorities to misrepresent the position.
9. The applicant says he became aware of serious corruption, including the use by officials of monies earmarked for public works. On 31st August 1993 he resigned from his post because of strong pressure. He says that he was told that if he did not resign he would be dismissed because he was on a black list compiled by the President through the Head of Personnel. He considered he was on that black list because of the political sympathies attributed to him, and because he was spokesman of a workers' association which he had helped to found.
10. After leaving the presidential office in 1993, he says that he was subject to various threats and acts of violence. On 14th January 1994 he was attacked on leaving the Central University campus and beaten unconscious, and he recalled an assailant saying words to the effect that `we can do anything we like with him because he is no longer in government and has no protection'. He was treated in hospital and made a report to the police but without any action being taken.
11. He then says he received telephone calls threatening that he would be killed and his family would disappear. He sent his family away from Quito and made a report to the police. He then says he went to Guayaquil where his family was staying, and asked his lawyer to see if he could deal with the problem of these attacks. The lawyer made enquiries and believed the government intelligence service was behind the attacks because of the suspicion that he might be passing information to the FIE about government corruption.
12. He says he remained with his family until February 1995 when he thought that interest in him had lapsed, but the telephone death threats recommenced and, he says, on 26th July 1995 there was a particular incident in which a number of men attacked him and his family at their home but these men fled when neighbours reacted to the attack. He says both he and his wife were injured at that time and required hospital treatment. The family dog was shot dead. He complained to the local court, previous complaints to the police having been ineffectual. Again, he says, no action was taken. He then fled to the home of relatives in Calderon, which is outside Quito. He thought then that his family would be left alone, and he came to the United Kingdom on 9th September 1995.
13. As I have indicated, subsequently in October he telephoned his wife and was told that everything appeared to be going well and that - for the reasons I have given - she thought the government was no longer interested in him. So he then returned to Ecuador, but he found that circumstances in fact had not improved.
14. He says in November 1995, because he thought that his problems were over, he accepted an invitation to stand as a Deputy for Congress on behalf of the Independent Party. However, on 28th December he was subject to a violent attack by a man who said they would kill him because he had come back and he was only rescued by the intervention of colleagues. He then says he decided to leave the country with his family, but before he could do so he was detained by men who claimed to be policemen. He was put in a cell with criminals who victimised him. He was given no food or water.
15. The lawyer subsequently became aware of his presence and he was freed after five days, but he had been told by prison warders that accusations of robbery had been made against him and that people in the government wished him to disappear or be killed. He says that after his release he went into hiding with his family. He complained further to the authorities about the attack and the false imprisonment but then left Ecuador, when nothing further had happened, on 9th February 1996."
"Notwithstanding the absence of any cross-examination, having regard to the evidence as a whole and reminding myself of the standard of proof set out earlier in this Determination, I have come to the reluctant conclusion that much of the Appellant's evidence is not credible. I am not satisfied that the Appellant subjectively has the fear of persecution which he claims."
"1.1 It is submitted that the most troubling aspect of this case is the way in which the Special Adjudicator disposed of the apparent documentary support for the asylum application. This was the basis for the permission granted by Mr Justice Moses to move for judicial review; and the permission granted by Mr Justice Elias to appeal.
1.2 The relevant documents fall into four categories ...
confirmation of holding government post, and general character;
medical report of injuries to appellant from attack of 14.1.94, and complaint to judge;
two medical reports confirming injuries to appellant and wife from attack of 26.7.95, together with complaint by appellant to judge;
medical report, detention order and complaint to judge regarding assault on 28.12.95, and detention on 5.1.96.
1.3 These documents were considered by the expert Dr Jones at the top of pp.1-2 of his report ... He concluded that they seemed authentic. [I shall refer further to Dr Jones shortly.]
1.4The Special Adjudicator's approach at page 13 is unambiguous: `However I consider that the authenticity of those documents is dependent on a finding as to the appellant's credibility as a witness.' They clearly mean:
a. the appellant's credibility as a witness is assessed first and separately from the authenticity of the documents.
b. an adverse finding on the former issue alone justifies disposing of the latter authenticity issue.
1.5Both these propositions are wrong in law. Mr Justice Elias accepted so ... (but went on to find, despite these words, that the Special Adjudicator had not fallen into this error)."
"The learned judge erred in finding ... that the Special Adjudicator adopted the correct approach to the credibility of the appellant and the supporting expert report of Dr Gareth Jones.
2.1 The report of Dr Jones ... provides substantial support for the evidence of the appellant. Having dealt with the apparent authenticity of his documents, he reaches several conclusions about the consistency of DP's evidence with his knowledge of the state of affairs in Ecuador and how human rights abuses are carried out by various agencies.
2.2 The Special Adjudicator dismisses this expert support at page 13, saying `... his conclusions are based upon the assumption that the appellant's account of things is credible.' Dr Jones does not make that assumption. He finds that it is credible when examined in the light of his knowledge and experience. ...
2.3 The result of the Special Adjudicator's approach is again wrongly to compartmentalise this support apart from the issue of the credibility of the appellant."
"Turning to the statement by Dr Gareth Jones, his conclusions are based on the assumption that the Appellant's account of things is credible. He gives helpful background to the financial scandals surrounding the Appellant leaving the Government's employment in 1993. But it appears the scandal did not break until the late summer of 1995. The Appellant seemed to suggest in his evidence that the reason for his `forced' resignation was the Government's apprehension over the extent of his knowledge regarding this misappropriation but since the news did not break until 2 years later, I am not able to accept that this is the prime reason behind the pressure the Appellant was put under to leave. In relation to the Appellant's detention in January 1996, Dr Gareth Jones described the Appellant's account as confused. I don't see why Dr Jones thought this. It appears to me that Dr Jones was unable to reconcile the Appellant's account of his detention and subsequent release with his own knowledge of the way detention is unlawfully inflicted in Ecuador. Dr Jones so far as he is able to tell, is satisfied that the documents produced by the Appellant are authentic. However, I consider that the authenticity of those documents is dependent on a finding as to the Appellant's credibility as a witness."
"25. Mr Fripp submits that [the sentence in question] makes it plain that the Special Adjudicator was saying that authenticity was only to be determined once a finding had been made as to the appellant's credibility; but I do not think that is what the Adjudicator is saying in that passage. That sentence follows the previous sentence which was as follows:
`Dr Jones so far as he is able to tell, is satisfied that the documents produced by the Appellant are authentic.'
26. In my view, all the Adjudicator was doing is indicating that Dr Jones is basing his report, in part, on documents which had been given to him and which he had no reason to doubt (which appeared to him to be authentic), but he is making the point that their authenticity is ultimately to be determined as part of the finding on credibility as a whole. That is not, of course, a matter with which Dr Jones would have been concerned. Similarly, it is said that the Adjudicator has effectively ignored Dr Jones' conclusions on the grounds that they are based on documentary material whose credibility is in doubt.
27. It is not right to say that the conclusions have been totally rejected. The Adjudicator says, in terms, that helpful background information has been given by Dr Jones, and I think all he is doing in the passage which I have recited is indicating that Dr Jones' conclusions have to be viewed carefully because they are based on an assumption of the authenticity of certain documents, which assumption may not be correct and which is, in any event, for the Adjudicator to determine and obviously not for Dr Jones.
28. What Mr Fripp also says is that if one looks at the documentation in this case, it was very powerful. There were far more relevant documents than one normally finds in an asylum application; they were ostensibly strongly supporting the applicant's case and were, on the face of it, cogent and authentic documents. Very broadly, they fell into three categories: the documentation which was evidencing complaints made to the police and the judges; the documentation from certain doctors evidencing the fact that the applicant and his wife had sustained in some cases quite serious injuries, and evidence that the applicant was wanted by the police.
29. Some of this documentation, as Mr Underwood for the respondent pointed out, is self-serving in the sense that the complaints to the police and the judiciary are, of course, documents which the applicant has produced. Some of them do not fall into that category, namely, in particular, the documentation relating to the injuries sustained by the applicant and his wife.
30. Mr Fripp went so far as to submit that where there is apparently objective evidence of that kind, then really it is not open to the Adjudicator to go behind it in an asylum case. With respect, that cannot be right. There are various ways in which documents may be obtained and may be presented to the authorities which are not genuine. Either they may be forgeries or it may be that individuals have been persuaded to produce these documents to represent something which is other than true.
31. In this case it is plain that the Adjudicator was not persuaded that these documents were sufficient to demonstrate the credibility of the account given by the applicant. It must be said that when interviewed on the first occasion the applicant had told the immigration officer that he was not a member of the FIE and he had produced the certificate - which he had formerly produced for the government itself - to persuade the immigration officer that he was not a member of the FIE, and had had no links with it.
32. So, unfortunately, he had been willing on a previous occasion to rely upon a document which he subsequently accepted had been fraudulently obtained, albeit for the understandable reason of wanting to preserve his job, and he had sought to rely upon that as part of his claim before the immigration officer.
33. It is true that the Adjudicator does not form a view about these documents, in the sense that he has not said which he considers to be authentic, or why he does not give these documents the weight that Mr Fripp says they deserve. But it seems to me that it is very difficult for him to do that: he will not know whether, for example, the medical documents are forgeries, or whether they are misrepresenting the facts, or whether there were injuries but they were not sustained for the reasons given by the applicant. What he was clearly satisfied about was that looking at the evidence in the round (and he does say on two occasions that he has done that) he was not persuaded by the credibility of the applicant's case. It seems to me impossible for him to form a concluded view about individual documents or how they were obtained. But he plainly was not satisfied, looking at all these matters, that they were sufficient to lead him to conclude that the evidence of the applicant was substantially credible."
"The Learned Judge erred in finding ... that there was no significance to the erroneous finding by the Special Adjudicator that because the financial scandal did not break until 1995 the Appellant's loss of his post in 1993 was not attributable to his knowledge thereof.
4.1 An important part of the Appellant's case related to his evidence that he had been forced out of his important post, and was in danger, because of confidential information he had about a financial scandal involving members of the government. Significant support for this assertion was provided by the report of Dr Jones ... confirming the existence of such a scandal involving powerful figures. ...
4.3 The error by the Special Adjudicator is pretty central to his reasoning, because he immediately continues on page 13 by concluding that he is unable to accept that knowledge of financial scandal led to the pressure upon him. He there accepts that the Appellant did indeed lose his post in August 1993 ... and ... he concludes that the pressure arose simply from suspicions regarding his political views. He holds his treatment to have been `discriminatory rather than persecutory'."
"If, as the Appellant claims, these forces are out to kill him or to `make him disappear' the fact that they have not succeeded in doing so despite having plenty of opportunity undermines the credibility of the Appellant's claim."
"44. In addition, Mr Fripp criticised the Adjudicator for concluding that if the forces had been out to kill, or make the applicant disappear, then the fact that they had not succeeded in doing so undermined the credibility of the appellant's claim. Mr Fripp said that was at best an ambiguous sentence, but it seems to me that it is perfectly legitimate for the Adjudicator to say that if this was the determined wish of the authorities, then the fact that they had failed was a factor, at least, that he was entitled to take into account when assessing credibility."
"The Special Adjudicator and the IAT erred in failing to have any regard to the concession by the Respondent in the amended letter of refusal dated 27.11.98 that there was substance to his claim of being detained on 5.1.96."
"21. ... When applications are made for judicial review of a decision of the Immigration Appeal Tribunal it is often the case that the substantive argument relates not directly to what was decided by the IAT but to the decision of the Special Adjudicator that the IAT has been reviewing. That is because, in most cases, the question of substance that the IAT will be concerned with will be the same as that which was before the Special Adjudicator and will be illuminated by and be based on findings that the Special Adjudicator made. It is important, however, not to allow that practice, which in an appropriate case is a beneficial and proper practice, to cause us to forget the -essential principles of judicial review which apply in this area as to any other.
22. The present case underlines that. This is not a case where the proceedings, such as they were before the IAT, consisted solely of what might be called a rehearing of the matters that have been before the Special Adjudicator. The complaint now made of the Special Adjudicator is that he did not consider the issue of undue harshness in such findings as he made about internal flight. The place to make that complaint was by using the appellate mechanism provided by statute, that is to say, by appealing to the IAT. By normal principles of judicial review, when that appellate group is provided by statute it is inappropriate to seek to use judicial review as an alternative remedy in respect of what was done by the Special Adjudicator. In this case no complaint was made in the appeal to the IAT about the Special Adjudicator's finding on internal flight. That being so, it seems to me impossible to say that the IAT itself behaved irrationally (which is, we must remember, the test that has to be applied in this jurisdiction) when it itself did not take or raise the point."
"... the Secretary of State has conducted a thorough review of all the evidence pertinent to your client's case."