A 25-year-old man, the son of a former captain in Saddam Hussein's military, has been granted the right to remain in the United Kingdom after a tribunal ruled that he faces a genuine threat to his life in Iraq due to his father's association with the former regime.
Family Background and Flight
The asylum seeker, who has been granted anonymity, fled Iraq at the age of five after his uncle was kidnapped and his family received death threats. His father served as a captain in Saddam Hussein's security forces and was a member of the Ba'ath Party, a Sunni Muslim socialist organization that was overthrown following the US-led invasion in 2003.
The threats originated from Shia Muslim paramilitary groups, including the Badr Organization, which is now part of the Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). Following the kidnapping of his uncle in 2006, the family fled to the United Arab Emirates. The young man has not returned to Iraq since then.
Threats Continue
Despite the family home in Baghdad being sold, threats from Shia militias have continued to be delivered to that address, with one such threat made as recently as 2020. The man has no remaining family in Baghdad, and relatives in Kirkuk have become estranged.
Education and Asylum Claim
In 2018, he traveled from the UAE to Scotland to study aeronautical engineering at the University of Glasgow. He entered the UK with a valid passport and student visa. Upon completing his degree in 2022, he claimed asylum, stating that he fears Shia militias in Iraq due to his father's Ba'athist connections.
Tribunal Decision
Upper Tribunal Judge Paul Lodato, sitting at the British asylum court, ruled in his favor, stating: 'There is a real risk that the threat to his life will be acted on by Shia militia.' The judge noted that the man is a single individual with no dependents and is known as the son of a Ba'athist. Both he and his father had been threatened by the PMF.
Judge Lodato added: 'He has not lived in Iraq since he was five and a half years old. Then, he was protected from the surrounding violence, upheaval, and threats by his family. If he returns to Iraq today, he will be alone. He has neither family nor a network of support available in Iraq. He will return to a country he is unfamiliar with. When he left Baghdad, he was a little boy who was entirely dependent on his Ba'athist parents. He will rapidly be noticed. With that profile, there is a real risk that the threat to his life will be acted on by Shia militia.'
The judge concluded that there would be 'very significant obstacles to his reintegration in Iraq' and allowed the appeal on asylum grounds.
