A/HRC/16/53/Add.1 or freedom would be threatened on account of his race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.” (b) Response from the Government dated 14 April 2010 402. In its letter dated 14 April 2010, the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland responded to the urgent appeal of 19 March 2010 seeking clarification of the case concerning Mr. A. 403. The Government indicated that Mr. A. sought judicial review of the decision to remove him from the United Kingdom, claiming breaches of Article 3 and 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights as well as the Refugee Convention. The Government stated that Mr. A., in the course of the application, had an opportunity to set out his reasons for challenging the decision before an independent judge of the High Court, with the benefit of legal representation. 404. The Government indicated that this issue of his conversion to Christianity had already been substantively considered, and rejected, in his Asylum and Immigration Tribunal in January 2009. 405. The Government indicated that the judge refused the judicial review claim on paper on 17 February 2010, ordering that the claim was unarguable, lacked any merit and that removal action could take place even if Mr. A. wished to take further court proceedings. The Government stated that Mr. A., through his representatives, renewed his application on 1 March 2010 but in light of the observations from the court it was not deemed to be a barrier to removal. The Government indicated that it was open to Mr. A. to apply to the court for an injunction to prevent removal action from being taken. 406. The Government informed that consequently the Claimant was removed from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on 21 March 2010. (c) Observations by the Special Rapporteur 407. The Special Rapporteur is grateful that the Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland replied by letter of 14 April 2010. He would like to refer to his predecessor’s country report (A/HRC/7/10/Add.3, para. 79), in which the Special Rapporteur issued the following recommendations with regard to refugees and asylumseekers: “The Special Rapporteur was informed that asylum claims in the United Kingdom, including those based on well-founded fear of religious persecution, are subject to rigid scrutiny and that few applications are successful in the initial decision or in the appeal procedure. Since there is no official data available on how many asylum-seekers sought asylum in the United Kingdom on grounds of religious persecution, further research and aggregated data collection may be useful in order to analyse the issues involved with regard to freedom of religion or belief. Such research by the Government, civil society or academia may also deal with the situation of individuals converting after their departure from their country of origin and their refugee sur place claims. The Special Rapporteur would like to reiterate that a post-departure conversion should not give rise to a presumption that the claim is fabricated and the immigration authorities should evaluate the genuineness of the conversion on a case-by-case basis taking into account the applicant’s past and present circumstances.” 76