Ex-BBC journalist helped Pakistani asylum seeker avoid deportation

Owen Bennett-Jones provided tribunal with a report describing the ‘poor conditions’ of prisons in Pakistan

A former senior BBC correspondent helped a Pakistani asylum seeker avoid deportation by supporting his human rights claim.

Owen Bennett-Jones – a former Islamabad bureau chief for the BBC – backed the man’s claim that he faced being arrested by security services and imprisoned if he were deported back to Pakistan.

Bennett-Jones, who was the long-time host of the World Service’s Newshour programme, used his personal contacts to establish whether the individual’s claims were true, the hearing was told.

The broadcaster said he had been informed the asylum seeker was on a “control list” and would likely be “picked up” on his arrival in Pakistan.

After the former correspondent described the “poor conditions” of prisons in Pakistan in a report to the tribunal, the individual was granted refugee status.

An immigration judge found that it would breach the man’s Article 3 rights, which protect against persecution and torture, under the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) if he were to return to his home country, where he claimed he was wanted by the Pakistan military for desertion.

The judge overruled the Home Office, which had claimed that “little weight” could be attached to Bennett-Jones’s report as he was “an expert on extremism rather than the Pakistan military”.

‘Arrested, tortured, interrogated’

The Pakistani, who was granted anonymity, came to the UK on a student visa in 2010 after fleeing Pakistan. He applied for leave after his visa ended, with appeals lasting until 2020, when he was told he would be deported.

He then appealed against the deportation, saying that he had turned to the Pakistani military for help after the Taliban tried to recruit him. He said the Taliban told him he would be “of great use to to them” as he had experience working as a radar technician for the Pakistani air force (PAF).

The police refused to help him, so he returned to his PAF base to inform his commanding officer of what had happened. He was then arrested by military police, tortured and interrogated for nine days before being granted a month’s leave – during which he fled to the UK.

The tribunal said: “[He] claims that he is now wanted as a deserter by the PAF and that military officials often visit his family’s home to question them about his whereabouts.”

As a deserter, he faced arrest and court martial if he returned, he said.

Bennett-Jones provided the tribunal with a “country expert report”, which the asylum seeker “relied upon” in the proceedings.

The former BBC journalist said: “Having been given [the asylum seeker’s] passport number and CNIC [ID card] number by his lawyer, I enquired from my contacts in Pakistan about [his] status. It turns out that he is on the passport control list.”

Bennett-Jones said he managed to obtain this information through “good senior contacts in Pakistan” but could not divulge the names of his sources as it would put them at risk. He said the asylum seeker was “still on the passport control list and would therefore be picked up on his arrival in Pakistan”.

‘An impressive CV’

Matthew Hoffman, an upper tribunal judge, rejected the Home Office’s argument that Bennett-Jones was an expert on extremism rather than the Pakistan military. He said: “We find that Dr Bennett-Jones has an impressive CV.”

The judge referred to the fact that Bennett-Jones was a former BBC foreign correspondent and had been the corporation’s Islamabad bureau chief, as well as his having reported on South Asia for 25 years. He also noted that he ran seminars for British diplomats and civil servants and that he had a PhD.

Judge Hoffman said: “Considering the evidence together in the round and applying the lower standard applicable in protection cases, we are satisfied that the appellant is on the [exit control list].

“We also find that the most likely reason for this is that the [individual] is wanted for desertion from the PAF having not returned from his one month’s leave in early 2010.

“We are satisfied to the lower standard that on return to the country [the man] is likely to be stopped at the airport and arrested pending a court martial. We accept [evidence from] Dr Bennett-Jones’s first report that the likely punishment for desertion is a period of imprisonment.

“We are therefore satisfied that if the [man] was to be arrested and detained on return to Pakistan as a deserter from the PAF, then his removal would breach the UK’s obligations under Article 3 [of the ECHR].”