Case No. UKUT-00180-(IAC)

9. On the morning of the hearing, Mr Melvin, who has appeared for the Respondent throughout proceedings in the Upper Tribunal, provided us with a skeleton argument and various additional materials gleaned from the websites of the Dutch Embassy in Accra and the Netherland’s Immigration and Naturalisation Service. The service of these documents was very late in the day, and there was no explanation from the Respondent for this. Nonetheless, we admitted the skeleton argument and additional evidence. What we have made of this evidence is discussed later on in our decision. 10. The evidence we have considered in making our decision on the appeal is as follows: a) The bundle prepared by the Respondent for the appeal before the First-tier Tribunal; b) The bundle from the Appellant relied on before the First-tier Tribunal, indexed and paginated 1-109; c) The expert report, dated 25 May 2015, of Dr Ian Curry-Sumner, founder of Voorts Juridische Diensten , a legal services company based in Utrecht , the Netherlands ; d) A letter from the Ghanaian High Commission in London , dated 2 July 2014; e) Documents from the Ghanaian authorities previously submitted by the Appellant in respect of her marriage to Mr Awuah and subsequently stamped by the Dutch Embassy in Accra ; f) The Internet materials provided by Mr Melvin and referred to in the previous paragraph. 11. We were provided with the originals of the relevant Ghanaian documents. 12. The claimant and her husband attended the hearing but were not called upon to give oral evidence. Ms Ofei-Kwatia’s initial submissions 13. In her succinct opening, Ms Ofei-Kwatia relied on the expert report and submitted that it was comprehensive and sufficient for us to conclude that the claimant’s marriage was recognised under both Ghanaian and Dutch law.