Ethiopian Christian kidnapped at 14 by men who tried to FORCE him to convert to Islam wins asylum appeal

Published 30 October 2026, 16:40

• Deputy Upper Tribunal Judge Kate Hobbs heard the 22-year-old suffers from PTSD and is plagued by daily suicidal thoughts.
• Checkpoints were set up to stop Amhara people reaching Addis Ababa, the Home Office's own evidence showed.
• Mental illness is often blamed on demonic possession in Ethiopia, where under 1% of sufferers get continuous treatment.

An Ethiopian man who was kidnapped at 14 by men who tried to force him to convert to Islam has won his asylum appeal after a tribunal ruled it would be unreasonable to send him back to Ethiopia.

Deputy Upper Tribunal Judge Kate Hobbs allowed the appeal of the 22-year-old, identified only as TA, on both asylum and human rights grounds in a ruling issued on 13 October 2026, finding that the Home Office's proposal that he relocate to Addis Ababa was untenable given his personal circumstances.

TA, who is of Amhara ethnicity and Orthodox Christian faith, grew up in Jijiga in eastern Ethiopia.

As a child, he was abducted by a group of men who attempted to forcibly convert him to Islam and assaulted him, an ordeal that left him with chronic facial pain and serious mental health problems.

He left Ethiopia in 2018 at the age of 14.

His father died when he was around ten, and he has since lost contact with his mother, his only remaining family member.

The Helen Bamber Foundation's psychologist Dr Natasha Smyth diagnosed TA with PTSD and depression in April 2024.

A September 2026 report by integrative psychotherapist Dashmir Thaci found his condition had significantly worsened, with the appellant experiencing suicidal thoughts every day.

Thaci wrote that "the absence of current intention, planning or preparatory behaviour is clinically relevant" but "does not remove the significance of recurrent daily suicidal ideation involving identifiable methods."

Thaci warned that "threatened or actual removal to Ethiopia would carry a substantial risk of significant deterioration in [the appellant's] psychological state," potentially including increased anxiety, trauma-related distress, disturbed sleep, hopelessness and more frequent suicidal thoughts.

Judge Hobbs concluded that, given TA's severely limited daily functioning and the difficulties he had faced in obtaining mental health care in the UK even with assistance, he would be incapable of securing the treatment he needed in Ethiopia.

Expert country evidence from Dr I. Ngade concluded that internal relocation was not reasonable.

He warned that "the situation has worsened" since his previous report, with "increased political instability in the Amhara region" leading to "a further erosion of the rule of law, making safe internal relocation effectively impossible for someone with [the appellant's] profile."

The Home Office's own 2025 country policy and information note on Ethiopia was used against its position.

While it said that a person fearing non-state actors could "likely" relocate to cities such as Addis Ababa, a separate section recorded that "authorities established checkpoints across the region to prevent Amharas from travelling to Addis Ababa, raising concerns of ethnic profiling."

The same document showed that less than 1% of those affected by mental illness in Ethiopia can access continuous treatment.

It also recorded that some followers of Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity believe demonic possession causes mental illness, which Judge Hobbs found would likely result in TA being rejected by the Orthodox Christian community in Addis Ababa.

Judge Hobbs concluded that TA was "a young man with significant mental health problems, with no family or social support network in Ethiopia, let alone in Addis Ababa where he has never been before," who had "never lived in Ethiopia as an adult."

The appeal was allowed on both asylum and human rights grounds, and an anonymity order was made protecting his identity.