EAV (Appellant) v Secretary of State for the Home Department (Respondent)

Permission to Appeal application lodged

Case summary
Permission to Appeal
Previous proceedings

Case summary

Case ID

UKSC/2026/0061

Parties

Appellant(s)

EAV

Respondent(s)

Secretary of State for the Home Department

Issue

Does the Refugee Convention protect a victim of human trafficking in circumstances where, on her return to her country of origin, she would seek employment abroad such that she would be at real risk of further trafficking?

Facts

The appellant, EAV, is a national of the Philippines. She married her husband in 2012. They have a daughter born 24 August 2011. EAV and her husband have since separated. In 2014, EAV responded to a recruitment advert for housekeepers in Saudi Arabia. Instead of legitimate employment, EAV was trafficked to Saudi Arabia, where her passport and phone were confiscated and she was subjected to domestic servitude for several years. EAV’s employers took her with them on several occasions when they travelled to the UAE, Switzerland and the UK. On 12 August 2017, during a trip to the UK, EAV escaped from her employers with the aid of Kalayaan, a domestic workers’ charity. On 21 November 2017, the National Referral Mechanism (the competent authority in the UK) found that there were reasonable grounds to believe that EAV had been trafficked for the purposes of domestic servitude. On 14 December 2020, EAV applied for asylum and attended a substantive asylum interview. On 22 June 2022, the Secretary of State for the Home Department (SSHD) refused her asylum application. EAV appealed to the First-tier Tribunal, which allowed her appeal. That decision was overturned by the Upper Tribunal. The Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Upper Tribunal. EAV now appeals to the Supreme Court.