Omoruyi v Secretary Of State For the Home Department

Persecution under the Refugee Convention requires a causal connection between feared harm and a Convention reason. For religion, that connection may arise from adherence to, refusal to adhere to, or conduct flowing from religious belief. The claimant must nevertheless show that the relevant Convention attribute caused the person or group to be singled out. Increased vulnerability, or the fact that religious belief explains resistance to a criminal organisation, is insufficient where the organisation would have harmed anyone who defied it.

The appellant, a Nigerian asylum seeker, claimed that the Ogboni cult threatened to kill him after he refused to permit ritual burial of his father. His account, including violent reprisals and the absence of effective state protection, was assumed in his favour.

The Secretary of State argued that the harm was not persecution for a Convention reason. The Special Adjudicator and Immigration Appeal Tribunal had rejected the claim. The central question was whether the assumed risk arose for reasons of religion.

The appeal was dismissed unanimously. Lord Justice Simon Brown gave the judgment, with Lord Justice Waller and Mr Justice Forbes agreeing.

1. Religion includes holding or refusing belief and conduct arising from belief. Harm inflicted for those reasons may constitute religious persecution if the other Convention requirements are met.
2. Following R v IAT ex parte Shah [1999] 2 AC 629, discrimination is essential in the substantive sense: the claimant must be singled out because of a Convention attribute. Conscious enmity or malignity is unnecessary.
3. The appellant’s Christianity explained his refusal to comply with the Ogboni’s demands, but the cult would have harmed anyone who crossed it. The required religious nexus was therefore absent.
4. The Ogboni’s rituals did not make it a religion for Convention purposes. The organisation was properly characterised as intrinsically criminal.

• Court of Appeal (Civil Division): dismissed the appeal from the Immigration Appeal Tribunal.
• Immigration Appeal Tribunal: dismissed the appeal and granted leave to appeal.
• Special Adjudicator: rejected the claim for refugee status.