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The Upper Tribunal has given judgment as to whether, in the assessment of credibility, the benefit of the doubt (as detailed in the UNHCR Handbook para 203 and 204) should be a guiding principle in an asylum claim and whether a tribunal judge errs in law if he fails, when assessing the credibility of a minor applying for asylum, to give to that person’s evidence a liberal application of the benefit of the doubt.

In an appeal which concerns the removal of four North Korean nationals to South Korea who had previously applied for refugee status, the UK UT in GP and others (South Korean citizenship) North Korea CG [2014] UKUT 391 (IAC) reiterates much of its previous country guidance submitted in KK

The Children’s Commissioner’s report, entitled ‘"What's going to happen tomorrow?": Unaccompanied children refused asylum’, makes a number of recommendations to the UK government, including (page 89): (1) exempt children’s asylum cases from any merits test in order to obtain legal aid; (2) bring within scope for legal aid all claims from children and young people under immigration control who arrived as children and remain under the age of 25; (3) Appoint a guardian or specialist advocate as soon as an unaccompanied or separated child is identified, in line with Article 18(2) and 20(1) of

In QH (Christians - risk) (China) CG [2014] UKUT 86 (IAC), published on 14 March 2014, the UK Upper Tribunal states that ‘in general, the risk of persecution for Christians expressing and living their faith in China is very low, indeed statistically virtually negligible’.