A Nigerian woman who was denied asylum in Britain eight times has finally been granted the right to stay after deliberately joining the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB. The 49-year-old woman, who is from Nigeria, became involved with the Indigenous People of Biafra ‘in order to create a claim for asylum’, a judge said. The migrant came to the UK in 2011 and joined IPOB in 2017. It is a separatist group that has been labelled a terrorist organisation by Nigeria, but not the UK. Upper tribunal judge Gemma Loughran said that because the woman was part of the group, she has a ‘well-founded fear of persecution’ in her home country. Shadow home secretary Chris Philip slammed the decision to grant asylum as a ‘comically ludicrous’ interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights. It is the latest in a series of tribunal rulings allowing deportations to be paused, or asylum to be granted under human rights laws. The migrant said she was worried about being arrested at the airport and ‘disappeared’ if she returned to her country, The Telegraph reported. A lower tribunal judge originally rejected this claim due to a lack of evidence about her activities within the group. Judge Iain Burnett ruled that the woman joined IPOB purely ‘in order to create a claim for asylum’. But the upper tribunal judge overturned the decision, saying it was likely the woman would be identified as an activist upon her return. She ruled: ‘It is clear from the country background evidence that the security services act arbitrarily and arrest, harm and detain those it believes may be involved with IPOB without conducting an assessment of the extent of their involvement or their motivation. ‘The appeal is allowed on the basis that [the Nigerian woman] has a well-founded fear of persecution on account of her imputed political opinion arising from her involvement with IPOB in the UK.’ The post Nigerian woman who failed to secure asylum in Britain eight times is finally granted therighttostay after joining IPOB appeared first on Linda Ikeji Blog.
