Source: https://www.gardencourtchambers.co.uk/news/albanian-blood-feuds-and-certification-a-critical-view
Timestamp: 2019-09-20 17:18:12
Document Index: 639868585

Matched Legal Cases: ['EWCA ', 'EWCA ', 'EWCA ', 'UKHL ', 'UKHL ', 'EWCA ']

Albanian blood feuds and certification: a critical view | News | Garden Court Chambers | Leading Barristers located in London, UK
This is an expanded and updated version of a paper first published in March 2018.
The CPIN does not provide any adequate justification for the suggestion that Albanian claims based on blood feud can properly be certified. I say this for the following reasons.
The starting point of any hypothetical tribunal would be the country guidance in EH (blood feuds) Albania CG [2012] UKUT 00348 (IAC): “The Albanian state has taken steps to improve state protection, but in areas where Kanun law predominates (particularly in northern Albania) those steps do not yet provide sufficiency of protection from Kanun-related blood-taking if an active feud exists and affects the individual claimant… Where there is an active feud affecting an individual and self-confinement is the only option, that person will normally qualify for Refugee status.” In other words, depending on the facts of their case, an individual may not receive adequate state protection against an active blood feud. Any hypothetical tribunal would take this as a starting point. As the Court of Appeal held in SG (Iraq) [2012] EWCA Civ 940 at [47], “tribunal judges are required to take country guidance determinations into account, and to follow them unless very strong grounds supported by cogent evidence, are adduced, justifying their not doing so.” Even if the Home Office considers that an individual affected by an active blood feud would receive adequate protection, it cannot conclude that a hypothetical tribunal could not realistically take a different view."
Home Office decision-makers often fail to understand that the existence of a functioning police force and/or judicial system does not always imply that a sufficiency of protection is available. A case frequently overlooked in this regard is AW (sufficiency of protection) Pakistan [2011] UKUT 31 (IAC), of which the judicial headnote reads:
" 1. At paragraph 55 of Auld LJ’s summary in Bagdanavicius [2005] EWCA Civ.1605 it is made clear that the test set out in Horvath [2001] 1 AC 489 was intended to deal with the ability of a state to afford protection to the generality of its citizens.
2. Notwithstanding systemic sufficiency of state protection, a claimant may still have a well founded fear of persecution if authorities know or ought to know of circumstances particular to his/her case giving rise to the fear, but are unlikely to provide the additional protection the particular circumstances reasonably require (per Auld LJ at paragraph 55(vi)).
3. In considering whether an appellant’s particular circumstances give rise to a need for additional protection, particular account must be taken of past persecution (if any) so as to ensure the question posed is whether there are good reasons to consider that such persecution (and past lack of sufficient protection) will not be repeated."
It is established law that the effectiveness of the system provided is to be judged normally by its systemic ability to deter and/or to prevent the form of persecution of which there is a risk, not just punishment of it after the event: see AW (Pakistan) above at [23], citing one of the propositions put forward by Auld LJ in Bagdanavicius [2005] EWCA Civ 1605 and left undisturbed by the House of Lords in Bagdanavicius [2005] UKHL 38. With this in mind, it is important to consider the practicalities of protection. Even if the police are in general willing to prosecute those who commit revenge killings as part of a blood feud, it does not follow that the police will be either willing or able, for example, to provide prospective protection to a young man who lives in a remote mountain village and fears his neighbours.
It is also important to remember that the decision-maker must always ask themselves, first, whether the person seeking asylum is at risk of persecution in their home area and would be insufficiently protected against that risk in their home area, which may be a rural, conservative and/or remote part of northern Albania. If this is so, it is then, and only then, that the analysis shifts to internal relocation – in which the decision-maker must ask themselves not just whether the person seeking asylum could successfully avoid persecution in a different part of the country, but also whether it would be unreasonable or unduly harsh to expect them to do so. It is not acceptable to elide these two separate issues by stating simply that the person seeking asylum would be adequately protected by the state if they relocated to Tirana. This issue is discussed further below.
If the person seeking asylum is at risk in their home area, the decision-maker should turn to the issue of internal relocation. It is important to recall that there are two limbs to the internal relocation analysis: relevance and reasonableness. The first involves asking whether the person could avoid persecution by relocating; the second involves asking whether it would be unreasonable or unduly harsh for them to do so.
The CPIN does not demur from, and indeed cites at 2.6.2, the guidance given at paragraph 70 of EH:
An important and recent development, post-dating the first version of this paper, is the country guidance determination in BF (Tirana – gay men) Albania CG In this case at [179] the Upper Tribunal expressed some dissatisfaction with the limited evidence available as to the ability of persecutors to trace their victims through the registration system. However, significantly, it accepted at [181]:
“We accept Ms Young’s evidence that a person’s whereabouts may become known in Tirana by word of mouth. Albania is a relatively small country and we accept as entirely plausible that a person might be traced via family or other connections being made on enquiry in Tirana. Whether that would occur would depend on the family being motivated to make such enquiries (which motivation would probably depend on an awareness that the person may be living there) and the extent of its hostility. That is a question for determination on the evidence in each case."
The question of reasonableness – the second stage of the internal relocation test – also needs to be considered in every case. The reasonableness analysis involves asking whether the individual could lead a relatively normal life in the place of relocation without facing undue hardship. The ability to survive economically in the place of relocation is an aspect of the reasonableness analysis. The UNHCR states in its Guidelines on International Protection No. 4 that:
“[i]t would be unreasonable, including from a human rights perspective, to expect a person to relocate to face economic destitution or existence below at least an adequate level of subsistence. At the other end of the spectrum, a simple lowering of living standards or worsening of economic status may not be sufficient to reject a proposed area as unreasonable. Conditions in the area must be such that a relatively normal life can be led in the context of the country concerned.”
It is not the case that conditions in the place of relocation cannot be unreasonable or unduly harsh unless they infringe Article 3: AH (Sudan) [2007] UKHL 49. In AA (Uganda) [2008] EWCA Civ 579 the Court of Appeal found that there must be some conditions in the place of relocation that are unacceptable to the extent that it would be unduly harsh to return the applicant to them even if the conditions are widespread in the place of relocation: on the facts of that case, the Court considered that being forced into prostitution as a condition of survival would meet this threshold.
In assessing whether internal relocation is unduly harsh, the decision-maker needs to have regard to the individual’s age, health, family ties, vulnerabilities and other relevant factors. Medico-legal evidence, where available, will play a particularly important role. It must be borne in mind that in many cases, evidence shedding light on the appellant’s vulnerability will not be available at the stage of the initial decision. The Legal Aid Agency often declines to fund medico-legal reports at the pre-appeal stage, consistently with its published policy. Those representing young people at the pre-appeal stage should be prepared to argue robustly that, considering that many Albanian asylum claims are now certified, such reports ought to be funded at the pre-appeal stage in Albanian cases in order to ensure that the case of the person seeking asylum is adequately put forward.
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