{"id":64095,"date":"2025-04-30T22:51:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-30T22:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/64095\/"},"modified":"2025-04-30T22:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-30T22:51:08","slug":"asylum-seeker-allowed-to-stay-in-uk-because-hes-scared-of-getting-covid-back-home-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/64095\/","title":{"rendered":"Asylum seeker allowed to stay in UK because he’s ‘scared of getting Covid’ back home | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Ghanaian asylum seeker<\/a> has been allowed to remain in the UK after arguing he\u2019s \u201ctoo scared of getting Covid<\/a>” to return to his home country. Winfred Kwabla Dogbey, claimed he could not be returned to the West African country<\/a> because the effects of the virus on his health had been so severe that he would not get the necessary treatment in his home country.<\/p>\n

The 52-year-old was diagnosed with PTSD after he was hospitalised with Covid<\/a> in 2020 and suffered multiple organ failure. He was part of a rehabilitation programme in the UK to treat \u201cpost Covid<\/a>-19 syndrome\u201d for those impacted by the pandemic. An immigration tribunal was told the type of treatment that he needed was \u201cpractically non-existent\u201d in Ghana.<\/p>\n

The available psychiatric care in his home country was deemed “insufficient” for his diagnosis.<\/p>\n

As a result he won a claim to remain in the UK under the argument that he would endure a “rapid and severe decline in his mental health” if forced to return.<\/p>\n

The tribunal accepted it would be a breach of his article three rights under the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), which bars persecution, inhuman treatment and torture.<\/p>\n

Winfred explained that “very significant obstacles” would block his integration back in Ghana.<\/p>\n

The Upper Tier Tribunal of the Immigration and Asylum Chamber heard Winfred arrived in the UK in April 2013 on a visa. He claimed asylum in June 2016 but was refused.<\/p>\n

This was followed by a \u201cprotracted history of lodging further submissions\u201d for asylum, according to the tribunal.<\/p>\n

In May 2020 he was hospitalised and suffered a “very severe” effects of Covid<\/a>-related pneumonia. Doctors confirmed he was left with \u201cpost Covid<\/a>-19 syndrome\u201d, \u201cmoderately severe\u201d PTSD and moderate depression.<\/p>\n

Judge Khan of the upper tribunal, and deputy Judge Gill, said they were \u201csatisfied\u201d that Mr Dogbey\u2019s health conditions “persist” and agreed he was a \u201cseriously ill person\u201d.<\/p>\n

The judgement said: “Ghanaians with severe mental health illnesses are referred to psychiatric hospitals and prayer camps.<\/p>\n

“They experience ‘human rights abuses in both’ where they suffer further trauma.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Ghanaian asylum seeker has been allowed to remain in the UK after arguing he\u2019s \u201ctoo scared of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":64096,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[1433,32985,32986,20868,32984,105,40,16,32987,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-64095","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-coronavirus","9":"tag-covid-19-health-impact","10":"tag-european-convention-on-human-rights","11":"tag-european-court-of-human-rights","12":"tag-ghanaian-asylum-seeker","13":"tag-health","14":"tag-immigration","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-uk-immigration-tribunal","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114429367607070315","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64095"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64095\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}