Mr and Mrs A, and their two adult children are Coptic Christians from Sudan. They ran a successful business in Khartoum and through their church did charitable work with the Nuba refugees who live in desperate conditions in camps outside Khartoum. They were accused of trying to convert the Nuba to Christianity by the Sudanese authorities.
Mr A was repeatedly taken into detention where he was beaten and abused, Mrs A and her son B were arrested and detained on false charges, and B was arrested again on false charges and received an instant punishment of 30 lashes on his back. Eventually the family could take no more and applied successfully for visitor’s visas to come to the UK where they have family, with the intention of applying for asylum on arrival.
They all applied at the airport as soon as they arrived, and were later interviewed. Each family member was refused, on the basis that Mr A was alleged to have contradicted the times and dates on which his arrests took place and so their cases we deemed unbelievable.
Brighton Housing Trust assisted the family members with their appeal. BHT worked tirelessly to obtain evidence of injuries the son had sustained, and went through each of their histories meticulously so that the Immigration Judge was presented with an accurate and thorough version of their histories. Their appeals were allowed and they will now be granted refugee status and are safe from the prospect of being returned to Sudan where they would be at serious risk of ill treatment.
