Iraqi migrant will not be deported amid claims he faces death threats after sleeping with another man's wife

An Iraqi migrant has won an asylum appeal after a judge accepted he had faced "death threats" after his affair with another man's wife was exposed.

The man, known only as HI and aged in his twenties, escaped a confrontation with the husband after his lover was shot.

Home Office officials had challenged HI’s story as inconsistent and implausible, but Judge C R Cole found that sending the migrant back to Iraq would put him "at risk of serious harm" from the woman’s husband and family.

The husband was said to be a "well-connected and powerful" man within the Kurdistan Democratic Party.

HI arrived in the UK in November 2021 and his asylum and human rights claims were rejected in August 2024.

The First-tier Tribunal for the appeal in Manchester heard that HI's relationship with the woman began "before she was married".

Her father then arranged for her to marry another man, but the affair continued, with the pair meeting at her home before they were discovered by her husband.

Describing HI’s account of the confrontation, Judge Cole said: "He gave significant detail about exactly who was where, what lights were on, how the husband reacted and then how he was able to escape, but unfortunately his partner was shot.

"This was a surprising and emotion-filled event that was understandably chaotic and frightening. In my judgment the appellant’s account is plausible.

"I find that it is an account that, when considering all the circumstances, is sufficiently detailed and consistent to be accepted."

HI fled to a friend’s house and later learnt that death threats had been made against him at his family home, according to the account accepted by the tribunal.

HI had also travelled through France without claiming asylum, which Judge Cole said he "did have an opportunity" to claim asylum there.

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He told the Tribunal: "His account for not claiming asylum in France is not objectively reasonable. The appellant did have the opportunity to claim asylum in a safe country."

However, he concluded that this factor only undermined HI’s credibility "to a limited extent" and still accepted that what happened in Iraq was likely to be true.

The Judge said said: "I find that it is reasonably likely that the appellant will be subjected to serious harm on return to Iraq from his partner’s husband and family due to the appellant’s relationship with her."

The Home Office accepted that, if HI’s account was believed, he would not have sufficient protection in Iraq and could not safely move elsewhere in the country.

HI also succeeded on a separate ground after the judge accepted that he risked persecution for his political opposition to the authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The Home Office suggested that his activism was an attempt to "bolster a weak asylum claim", but Judge Cole accepted his beliefs as "genuine".

Instead, he found that HI would face "serious harm" if he expressed his political views in Iraqi Kurdistan in the same way as he had in the UK.

His appeal was allowed on asylum and human rights grounds in a decision signed on October 24, following a hearing on October 20.