Iraqi loses 13-year UK asylum bid after failing to prove he was Syrian Kurd

An Iraqi man, identified only as NI, has lost a 13-year legal battle to obtain asylum in the UK, having failed to prove he was from Syria. NI arrived in Britain in 2013 and claimed to be a Syrian Kurd who had fled to avoid conscription into the YPG. However, an immigration tribunal in Cardiff found that there was a "very high degree of certainty" that NI was actually from Iraq, and it was "very unlikely" that he was from Syria.

Linguist Dr Kawa Morad, a British Kurd of Syrian origin, also agreed that NI's Kurdish dialect was consistent with Duhok province and northern Erbil, Iraq, and not with the Jawadiyah district of Syria. Upper Tribunal Judge Rebecca Owens stated that NI "has never proffered any explanation for why his language is that of an Iraqi Kurd rather than a Syrian from Jawadiyah".

Judge Owens noted that NI could not pronounce the name of then Syrian president Bashar Al Assad properly or name any tribes from Jawadiyah during his interview shortly after arriving in the UK. NI's lawyers argued that he had severe mental health issues and would face inhuman or degrading treatment upon return to Syria or Iraq, but the judge dismissed his appeal, finding that NI was an Iraqi national and his deportation would not cause him harm.