JL (Appellant) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Respondent)

Permission to Appeal application lodged

Case summary
Permission to Appeal
Previous proceedings

Case summary

Case ID

UKSC/2026/0116

Parties

Appellant(s)

Respondent(s)

SSHD

Issue

1) Where a person was recognised as a refugee on the basis of one reason (“Reason 1”), but they seek to rely on a second reason (“Reason 2”) to resist revocation of their refugee status, who bears the burden of proof in respect of Reason 2? 2) Where the Upper Tribunal had misunderstood which risk category of the relevant country guidance the Appellant was claiming to be within, was the Court of Appeal entitled to hold that this was not a material error?

Facts

JL (the Appellant) is a citizen of the Democratic Republic of Congo (“the DRC”). They arrived in the UK as an unaccompanied minor in 2010 and claimed asylum. Their asylum claim was initially refused, but their refugee status was subsequently recognised, and their asylum claim granted, in 2012. This was on the basis that the Appellant would be at risk of persecution as a member of a particular social group: namely, street children in the DRC. In 2018, the Appellant was convicted of inflicting grievous bodily harm, for which he was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment. The Secretary of State for the Home Department (the Respondent) served notice of a decision to deport the Appellant and subsequently revoked the Appellant’s refugee status. In 2020, the Respondent refused the Appellant’s human rights claim against deportation. The Appellant’s appeals of the Respondent’s decisions to revoke their refugee status and to refuse their human rights claim were initially successful before the First-tier Tribunal, but that judgment was subsequently set aside by the Upper Tribunal. The Respondent then succeeded before the Upper Tribunal and the Court of Appeal. The Appellant now appeals to the Supreme Court.