2011. Her husband was violent and abusive towards her. She left him in
September 2012. She says that she applied for asylum in 2012, but Home
Office records, if accurately summarised in the details disclosed about her, do
not indicate that she did. She may well have applied for leave to remain under
para.289A of the Immigration Rules. Her claim was refused. She appealed to
the First Tier Tribunal. Her appeal was dismissed in 2013. Simultaneously
she was involved in two other sets of proceedings, the prosecution of her
husband for assault, of which he was convicted in February 2013 (a subsequent
appeal was dismissed), and divorce proceedings which resulted in a decree
absolute in February 2014, and in a restraint order against the husband
prohibiting him from having contact with her. At that time her address was
apparently not disclosed to him, although it was later. There are proceedings
in train, brought by him, for contact with their son which have resulted in an
order for supervised contact. She says that she feared and continues to fear
that removal to Pakistan would put her at risk of violence from his family.
33
She was recognised as a refugee in May 2015 and granted five years' leave to
remain. In August 2013 she was diagnosed by Dr. Rachel Thomas, a chartered
clinical psychologist, as suffering from a major depressive disorder associated
with post-traumatic stress disorder. It is not suggested that the cause of that
was the erroneous Home Office posting.
34
The information posted about her included her full name, her age and
nationality, the general area in which she lived (albeit very imprecisely) and
her immigration removal status, including a reference to "children". She gave
evidence in English, quietly and, for the most part, calmly. I believe that she
was doing her best to tell me the truth as she remembers it, though her
recollection of detail is imperfect. She said that publication of information
about her came as a shock and caused her to feel panicky. It was an additional
stress to her on top of the three sets of proceedings in which she was already
involved. She sought the help of her general practitioner, who prescribed an
increased dose of anti-depressant medicine.
35
In her witness statement she expressed her fear that disclosure might have
permitted her Pakistani relatives to track her down in the United Kingdom, just
as they might have been able to track her down if she was returned to Pakistan.
This fear is not rational for two reasons: (1) the information published about
her would not tell them anything material that they do not already know, her
name and age and the fact that she has a child. Information about the general
area in which she lived could not permit them to track her down. (2) It is
fanciful to suggest that any private individual might have searched the Home
Office website in October 2013, to look for references to particular named
individuals. The non-existent chance that they might find her has been
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