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Refugee succeeds in High Court challenge to negative trafficking decision

A Sudanese refugee has succeeded in challenging a negative trafficking decision after he was wrongly criticised for a lack of detail and supporting evidence for his claim. The case is R (Alnoor) v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2025] EWHC 922 (Admin).

Background

The claimant is a Sudanese national who was exploited, beaten and tortured for three months in Libya from June to September 2021 during his journey to the UK. He arrived in the UK on 13 November 2022 via the Channel and he was detained and claimed asylum on arrival.

He was released from detention on 24 November 2022. On 18 April 2023 he was issued with a notice of intent that his claim would be treated as inadmissible. The claimant was re-detained on 2 May 2024 and served with a second notice of intent.

He was referred into the National Referral Mechanism on 16 May 2024 to consider whether he was a victim of trafficking. The detention officer and NRM responder noted the following on the referral form:

I believe [the Claimant] to have accepted to work on the farm and get paid and as these farming works are normally season. [He] may not have been forced into working on the farm. [He] had to move on in search of another opportunity when the 3 months farming contract expired. [He] may have taken up farming work to gather some money to pay for his journey to the UK. I think story, which falls within the known pattern, was fabricated.

The officer also expressed disbelief because the account of exploitation was only being mentioned now, despite late disclosure being a common factor in these claims.

On 20 May 2024 a negative reasonable grounds decision was made (the first stage in the trafficking identification process). The claimant was released on bail on 1 June 2024 and his claim was then substantively considered in the UK and he was recognised as a refugee on 9 August 2024.   On 19 August 2024 the claimant sought judicial review of the negative trafficking decision.