4.  The facts of the case, as submitted by the parties, may be summarised as follows. 5.  The applicant is a Tamil who was born in 1976 in northern Sri Lanka. He arrived in the United Kingdom on 7 November 2000 and on that date claimed asylum on the ground that he feared persecution by the Sri Lankan army on account of his involvement with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (“the LTTE”). He submitted that he had been arrested in 1996, after he had left the LTTE, in a round-up and identified as an LTTE member by a masked man. He was severely tortured during the five days of his detention. He was released after the village headman and his mother intervened, but as a condition of his release he was required to sign on regularly at an army camp. 6.  On 7 March 2001 the Secretary of State for the Home Department refused the applicant’s asylum claim. He did not accept that the applicant had been arrested and tortured in 1996 or that he genuinely feared that he would be arrested by the army. 7.  The applicant subsequently obtained a medical report which confirmed that he had a number of scars on his scalp, his elbows and his legs caused by shell fragments. 8.  On 17 April 2002 the applicant’s appeal against the Secretary of State’s decision was dismissed by an Adjudicator. With no Home Office representative present at the hearing to cross-examine the applicant, his evidence was unchallenged. The Adjudicator therefore accepted that the applicant had been a member of the LTTE and that he had been detained and ill-treated by the army in 1996. The Adjudicator also accepted that the scars were caused by shell fragments as the applicant claimed. She noted, however, that the applicant’s scars were not readily visible and would not cause the applicant to stand out; this was evidenced by the fact that the applicant was able to leave Sri Lanka without difficulty, despite having to travel across the country and through checkpoints, which indicated that he was of no interest to the authorities. With regard to the applicant’s Article 8 rights, the Adjudicator noted that although the applicant had a brother and sister in the United Kingdom, he had been separated from them for eight and twelve years respectively; neither had been present at the hearing; and they could visit the applicant in Sri Lanka should they so wish. 9.  On 28 May 2002 the applicant was refused permission to appeal to the then Immigration Appeal Tribunal. 10.  The applicant subsequently made further representations to the Home Office, which, in a decision dated 11 May 2006, the Secretary of State refused to treat as a fresh asylum claim. On 9 October 2006 permission to apply for judicial review was refused. Permission was again refused on 19 February 2007 following an oral hearing. On 5 February 2007 the applicant once again submitted further representations. On 16 February 2007 the Secretary of State decided not to treat those representations as a fresh asylum claim. On 21 February 2007 a further application for permission to apply for judicial review was refused. 11.  On 10 January 2008 the applicant submitted fresh representations requesting that his case be reconsidered in light of the country guidance determination of LP (LTTE area – Tamils – Colombo – risk?) Sri Lanka CG [2007] UKAIT 00076 (see paragraph 13 below). The Secretary of State responded in a letter dated 27 August 2008 stating that:
“It is accepted that your client is of Tamil ethnicity as claimed. It is not believed that your client was tortured and as such it is doubtful he was a member of the LTTE as claimed”. 12.  This reasoning led to the conclusion that the applicant’s only risk factors were his Tamil ethnicity and scarring, which the Secretary of State pointed out only had significance if combined with other factors likely to bring the applicant to the attention of the authorities.