Hamida Abdulkarim Mohamed v The Secretary of State for the Home Department

A court-appointed interpreter’s function is to comprehend and communicate what is said at the hearing. The interpreter must alert the Tribunal if interpretation cannot be performed, but must not be asked to give evidence on a contested issue, including the language or dialect spoken by a witness. Such a course risks compromising the interpreter’s independence and creates practical unfairness.

Where language is material to an appellant’s claimed origin, any challenge to linguistic evidence should ordinarily be made by admissible direct evidence, potentially from a suitably qualified expert. In assessing claimed Bajuni identity, the evidence must be considered in the round. Knowledge of Kibajuni is relevant but is not invariably decisive. The approach in AA (Language diagnosis; use of interpreters) Somalia [2008] UKAIT 00029 was applied.

The appellant appealed against Immigration Judge Zucker’s dismissal of her asylum appeal. She claimed to be a member of the minority Bajuni clan in Somalia and therefore at risk on return. The Secretary of State disputed that claim.

The judge relied on a Sprakab linguistic report, the appellant’s limited knowledge of Somalia, and other credibility matters. The report assessed her as speaking Swahili with Tanzanian or Kenyan intonation rather than a Somali variety. The appellant contended that the judge should have asked the court interpreter whether she was speaking Kibajuni. She also alleged that the judge had failed to apply country guidance concerning assessment of Bajuni identity.

The central issues were the proper role of a court-appointed interpreter and whether the judge had assessed the appellant’s claimed clan identity lawfully.

1. Appeal dismissed. The Immigration Judge made no error of law. His decision dismissing the asylum appeal stood.
2. A judge may decide an appeal only on admissible evidence and matters properly subject to judicial notice. An interpreter’s purported view about the language spoken by an appellant would not become relevant merely by being described as a statement of fact. A court-appointed interpreter interprets for the Tribunal. If unable to understand a witness, the interpreter must say so, and the Tribunal may then address the interpretation difficulty. The interpreter must not be drawn into giving evidence on the disputed language or dialect spoken by the witness.
3. That rule protects the interpreter’s independence and impartiality. It also avoids practical and procedural unfairness, including uncertainty about how the exchange would be interpreted, which party had called the interpreter, and whether cross-examination would follow. The Tribunal approved and applied AA (Language diagnosis; use of interpreters) Somalia [2008] UKAIT 00029.
4. An appellant seeking to rely on the language spoken to establish origin may call direct evidence, including appropriately qualified expert evidence. An interpreter called by the appellant may give evidence from outside the hearing, but interpreter status alone does not establish expertise in linguistic analysis, accent or dialect. Weight depends on the individual’s credentials.
5. The Tribunal also rejected the country-guidance challenge. The appellant had maintained that she spoke Kibajuni; she had not advanced the alternative case that she was Bajuni despite not speaking it. In any event, the judge considered the evidence as a whole. He did not treat language as decisive, but also relied on her limited knowledge of Somalia and other credibility defects. He was entitled to find that she had not established Bajuni identity or a consequent risk on return.

• Upper Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber): appeal dismissed; the Immigration Judge’s decision stood.
• First-tier Tribunal: Immigration Judge Zucker dismissed the appeal against refusal of asylum and proposed removal to Somalia.
• Permission stage: Senior Immigration Judge Waumsley ordered reconsideration on 22 July 2009. That order took effect as permission to appeal to the Upper Tribunal under Schedule 2 to the Transfer of Functions of the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal Order 2010.