GS (Article 15 (c): indiscriminate violence) Afghanistan CG [2009] UKAIT 00044:
Hundreds of Afghans in the UK face deportation as the judgement in the above country guidance case rules that Afghanistan is not in a state of war. Three senior Judges ruled that
‘There is not in Afghanistan such a high level of indiscriminate violence that substantial grounds exist for believing that a civilian would, solely by being present there, face a real risk which threatens the civilian’s liffe or person, such as to entitle that person to the grant of humanitarian protection, pursuant to article 15 (c) of the Qualification Directive’.
The judges continued to state:
"Nobody is suggesting that the situation in Afghanistan is anything but a very long way short of ideal but... the numbers of civilians killed by indiscriminate violence turns out to be a great deal less than might otherwise have been expected."
The judgement effectively means that although there are casualties, the figures are not high enough to yield protection pursuant to the Directive. The earlier country guidance case of GS (Existence of internal armed conflict) Afghanistan CG [2009] UKAIT 00010 is no longer to be relied upon.
23/10/09