Immigration Solicitors

In this article Joanna Sherman of the Duncan Lewis Immigration department discusses a recent appeal in the First Tier Tribunal where UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) disputed the nationality of an individual who claimed to be a Palestinian refugee born in Syria.

The appeal was allowed by the Tribunal relying primarily on the language report produced by UKVI. With reference to the principles of sociolinguistics, it was successfully argued by the Appellant’s representative that the language report fully supported the Appellant’s testimony.

The Palestinian Diaspora in Syria – a (very) brief overview

Please note that this section of the article is designed purely to provide the briefest of introductions to this case and in no way fully addresses the complexities surrounding the development of the Palestinian Diaspora in the Levantine region and beyond.

Emigration from the Palestinian territories in recent decades has resulted in a large number of Palestinians residing in the neighbouring nations of Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Within these countries, some Palestinians continue to reside in refugee camps administered by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA), whilst some have moved out of these areas.

The immigration status of Palestinians in these camps is unique. In the case of Syria, they have all the rights of a national of Syria conferred upon them but they retain Palestinian nationality. Among other things, this allows them to retain their identity as Palestinians upon which a significant level of cultural importance is placed.

Whilst no specific provision is made for Syrian residents of Palestinian descent, an individual of this background can benefit from the wording of the UKVI Operational Guidance Note on Syria, February 2014 version, Paragraph 2.2.1 which states as follows:

“To qualify for asylum, an individual must have a fear of persecution for a Convention reason and be able to demonstrate that their fear of persecution is well founded and that they are unable, or unwilling because of their fear, to seek protection in their country of origin or habitual residence.” .

Yarmouk camp

Originally setup as a Refugee camp for displaced Palestinians, Yarmouk camp lies in a southern district of Damascus and is often referred to simply as Al-Yamouk. It was setup by the Syrian state in the late 1950s to accommodate the growing Palestinian population and is, unlike many other Refugee camps in the region, not administered by UNWRA.

Whilst its population is still largely Palestinian, Al-Yarmouk has also become a residential area for a number of Syrians.

Recent events in Syria have seen Al-Yarmouk become a target for Da’esh resulting in a number of human rights atrocities. The situation has been changing rapidly and calls for humanitarian relief in this area become more urgent.

Sociolinguistics – a basic definition

This field of linguistics concerns itself with the manner in which spoken language takes on different forms depending upon the background and environment of the speaker – this is a crude over simplification, at best, but is hopefully sufficient for the purposes of this case study.

By way of illustration, consider the street, area, city and country you were born in. For many of us this may not be the same area we were schooled in, nor the area in which we now live. The length of time spent in each of these different locations will, some sociolinguists argue, leave a linguistic mark on our speech. At a young age it may be expected for a child to mimic the accent of their parents whilst later on in life, this may be affected by the language used outside the homes. If the parents in question did not grow up in the area where the child is schooled, for instance, the child’s accent may be diluted by their contact with members of wider society.

The extent to which an individual may retain the accent of their parents into later life will depend on a myriad of factors which will almost certainly be unique in each individual case. Nonetheless, accents of a group of adults all born in the same area and who all attended the same school are likely to share a number of similarities.

The Appellant’s case

The Appellant provided UKVI with detailed testimony on his family background, stating that he had been born in Syria, as had his parents. His grandparents, however, had been born in the Palestinian Territories, moving to Syria as refugees. Unsurprisingly, he was therefore born and schooled in Al-Yarmouk. It was agreed that if we could show this was indeed the Appellant’s background he may be recognised as a refugee.

UKVI carried out a language assessment of the Appellant via telephone during his substantive asylum interview. The interviewing officer informed the Appellant within a few minutes of the conversation that the preliminary result stated he was not speaking in a manner that consistent with standard spoken Syrian Arabic. No further information was provided and the vagueness of the finding was cause for concern.

We requested a copy of the full language report but UKVI confirmed in writing that they would not provide this document. The Appellant’s claim for asylum was subsequently refused. The refusal relied heavily on the content of the report, specifically, findings that the Appellant spoke using features which were common to Palestinian Arabic. It was further noted that his use of Palestinian speech was not consistent and elements of other accents were perceived in his speech.

The full language report was provided in the Respondent’s bundle ahead of the appeal hearing, which allowed the Appellant’s representatives to fully analyse the findings in light of the Appellant’s background.

Proving nationality using sociolinguistic analysis

It was argued that an individual born to parents of Palestinian descent, in a predominantly Palestinian area of Damascus, would be expected to speak with elements of speech matching those commonly used by Palestinian nationals.

This argument was supported by evidence which shows that, within the Palestinian Diaspora, many parents made a concerted effort to pass their accents onto their children in an effort to preserve their identity (source cited below). Even in the case of the Appellant where he was the second generation of his family to be born outsidethe Palestine territories, it was highly likely that the shared history of the Palestinian people living in Syria resulted in a strong attachment to the Palestinian accents of previous generations.

Secondly, the marked inconsistencies within the Appellant’s spoken Arabic had to be addressed. The language report stated that, within his speech, the Appellant switched towards as well as away from commonly used Palestinian words and pronunciation. The report provided two possible explanations for this: the first being that the Appellant was attempting to mask his natural accent resulting in a confusion of different speech patterns, the second being that he could have lived in a mixed linguistic society. UKVI relied on the former and we sought to establish the latter.

We argued that whilst the Appellant would have been influenced by the accent of his parents and other members of the Palestinian community in Al-Yarmouk, he would also have come into contact with speakers with Syrian accents through interaction, television, schooling and potentially countless other instances.

We argued that, given his background, the Appellant could not be expected to speak using an accent and intonation that was exclusively Palestinian with no use of accents or words common to other nations. The very existence of linguistic inconsistencies in his speech, we argued, strengthened his testimony rather than weakening it.

The First Tier Tribunal agreed with these arguments and concluded that the language report produced by UKVI supported the Appellant’s oral evidence. Weight was also attached to evidence which indicated that the importance of identity within the Palestinian Diaspora accounted for an explanation why the accent was seen to survive through multiple generations.

The way forward

This case has demonstrated that there is a place for sociolinguistic analysis in the practice of human rights law. In this instance UKVI relied on a very blinkered interpretation of the Appellant’s language analysis report without any consideration of the potential social influences which may have affected the Appellant’s case.

As a result, a thorough evaluation and contextualisation of the UKVI language reports may be useful in a number of cases and is to be encouraged.

Finally, I wish to extend my thanks to Hassan R. Abdel Jawad and Adel Abu Radwan of Sultan Qaboos University, Oman for the use of their article, Sociolinguistic Variation in Arabic: A New Theoretical Approach, which can be found on the linguistics database, Revisites Catalanes amb Accés Obert (RACO), by clicking here.

About the author:Joanna Sherman

Joanna Sherman was born in Jordan and studied Modern Languages at Oxford University before reading law. She has significant experience representing asylum seekers in the First Tier Tribunal and has been successful in securing refugee status for her clients in many cases.