A 39-year-old Afghan survivor of torture is to be forcibly removed from the UK and returned to his home country on Christmas Day, in what is thought to be the first case of its kind. Lawyers for the man, an asylum seeker accepted by the Home Office to be a torture survivor, have mounted a last-minute legal challenge to try to prevent him from being deported. During the asylum seeker’s detention, a rule 35 assessment was carried out to ascertain whether he was a survivor of torture or had some other vulnerability. He said his client’s vulnerability as a survivor of torture made it too dangerous to deport him. “It is deeply concerning and yet sadly unsurprising that the Home Office is planning to remove my client on Christmas Day,” Bell said.

Source: The Guardian December 23, 2017 15:00 UTC