AA (Sudan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 1869 (Admin) (06 July 2021) (2 February 2022)

A judge made it clear the Home Office should do everything possible to return a Sudanese national unlawfully returned to France to the UK, because he was not fairly screened, in an interim relief ruling on AA (Sudan) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2021] EWHC 1869 (Admin) handed down on 06 July 2021.

Duncan Lewis Solicitors was asked to help a Sudanese Darfuri national by Liberty Investigates, the publishing arm of the human rights charity.

He was removed to France 11 months prior and, at the time we were contacted, was destitute and street homeless there, without access to legal aid and at risk of refoulement to Sudan.

We were instructed to challenge the SSHD’s decision to remove AA to France because it was suspected that his trafficking claim was not properly investigated, if at all, prior to his removal.

The aim was to seek AA’s return to the UK by way of interim relief so that his trafficking claim could be properly investigated, as the UK’s approach to non-Arab Darfuri claims being more favourable than in France.

Mr Justice Wall allowed the application seven months out of time and granted interim relief.

He found that: “I am quite satisfied that there is a proper argument to be made to the effect that it is unlawful for the defendant to have had in place a secret policy, which went directly against the terms of her published policy, and which directly impeded her in her duty to consider whether asylum seekers have been trafficked en route to this country (§21) […]”

Two key questions that would have led to the Claimant being identified as a possible victim of trafficking and triggered an NRM referral were not put him during his screening interview, including ‘why have you come to the UK?’ and ‘can you outline your journey to the UK?’

In fact, it was the policy not to ask these two questions, the judge was told.

The failure to ask these questions was material because there was a real possibility that the outcome for the claimant would have been different had they been asked.

Our client was sent back to France, which had refused his asylum claim. The matter was considered urgent as there was evidence before the court that the French authorities appeared not to comply with their obligations under the Anti-Trafficking Convention, and may refoul AA to Sudan.

His fate was decided when the ‘secret screening policy’ (see DA & Ors v The Secretary of State for the Home Department [2020] EWHC 3080 (Admin) – challenge to secret unpublished abridged screening policy under the Dublin III process) of the SSHD was in place in the UK. However, there is evidence that he came through Libya on his way to France and thereafter to the United Kingdom and that his professed experiences in Libya are consistent with those seen in others who were subjected to modern slavery in that country.

The judge ruled that the SSHD should make every effort possible to return our client to the UK. AA was returned to the UK a short while after the judgment where he will now have his trafficking and asylum claim considered. The SSHD was refused permission to appeal to the Court of Appeal, and the Client was returned to the UK in August 2021.



Representation: public law solicitor Maria Thomas and caseworker Molly Nicolson, instructed Chris Buttler QC of Matrix Chambers and Ali Bandegani of Garden Court Chambers.

Find full details of this case on Bailii’s website here.