A Moroccan Woman Seeks Asylum, London Counters Her with a Phantom Report
A Moroccan woman and her child were denied asylum in the United Kingdom on the basis of an alleged official note stating that their return to Morocco would be safe. A senior judge discovered that the document had probably never existed.
The woman claims to have fled Morocco after being subjected to a forced marriage when she was a minor, as well as rape and severe violence. She says she fears being killed by her husband, whom she describes as a powerful criminal who has already been convicted.
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The British Home Office rejected her application, citing a “Country Policy and Information Note” on Morocco dated July 2021. This type of official document is usually used to assess the risks asylum seekers would face if they returned to their country.
The reference was also accepted by a first judge when rejecting the Moroccan woman’s appeal. But when the case reached the Upper Tribunal, a higher court, the document remained untraceable.
A Phantom Document Before the Judge
“It appears that no note of this kind ever existed,” the judge observed in a decision issued on 14 July. The document was not found in the public archives and the ministry’s specialist department was unable to confirm its existence, reports The Guardian.
The magistrate believes that the refusal letter displays characteristics consistent with the use of artificial intelligence. The reference to the nonexistent report could therefore have come from an AI-generated “hallucination.” He nevertheless specifies that this hypothesis has not yet been demonstrated.
The judge compared the use of such a document to that of false evidence and concluded that there had been a procedural irregularity. When questioned, the ministry ultimately produced another internal note, which had never been submitted to the court and did not conclude that Morocco would be a safe country for a woman in this situation.
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The asylum proceedings involving the Moroccan woman and her child are continuing.