A Ghanaian asylum seeker has been allowed to remain in the UK after arguing he’s “too scared of getting Covid" to return to his home country. Winfred Kwabla Dogbey, claimed he could not be returned to the West African country 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.
The 52-year-old was diagnosed with PTSD after he was hospitalised with Covid in 2020 and suffered multiple organ failure. He was part of a rehabilitation programme in the UK to treat “post Covid-19 syndrome” for those impacted by the pandemic. An immigration tribunal was told the type of treatment that he needed was “practically non-existent” in Ghana.
The available psychiatric care in his home country was deemed "insufficient" for his diagnosis.
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.
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.
Winfred explained that "very significant obstacles" would block his integration back in Ghana.
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.
This was followed by a “protracted history of lodging further submissions” for asylum, according to the tribunal.
In May 2020 he was hospitalised and suffered a "very severe" effects of Covid-related pneumonia. Doctors confirmed he was left with “post Covid-19 syndrome”, “moderately severe” PTSD and moderate depression.
Judge Khan of the upper tribunal, and deputy Judge Gill, said they were “satisfied” that Mr Dogbey’s health conditions "persist" and agreed he was a “seriously ill person”.
The judgement said: "Ghanaians with severe mental health illnesses are referred to psychiatric hospitals and prayer camps.
"They experience 'human rights abuses in both' where they suffer further trauma."
