Arefin v Minister for Immigration (No 2)

In *Arefin v Minister for Immigration (No 2)*, the applicant, Mr Arefin, sought judicial review of a decision by the Minister for Immigration to refuse to grant him a protection visa. The dispute concerned the Minister's assessment of whether Mr Arefin would face a real chance of persecution if returned to Bangladesh, specifically in relation to allegations of his involvement in political violence. The matter came before Driver J of the Federal Court of Australia.

The primary legal issue before the Court was whether the Minister's decision was affected by jurisdictional error. This involved determining whether the delegate who made the decision had failed to properly consider the evidence before them, particularly concerning the applicant's alleged involvement in political violence and the potential consequences of such involvement upon return to Bangladesh. The Court was required to assess whether the delegate's findings were reasonably open on the evidence presented.

Driver J found that the delegate had made a jurisdictional error by failing to properly consider the evidence relating to Mr Arefin's alleged involvement in political violence. The delegate's reasoning, which focused on the lack of direct evidence of Mr Arefin's personal participation in specific violent acts, did not adequately address the risk of persecution arising from his alleged association with a particular political group and the general climate of political retribution in Bangladesh. The Court applied the principles established in cases concerning the assessment of risk of persecution, emphasizing that a failure to engage with relevant evidence or to draw inferences that were reasonably open on the facts could constitute jurisdictional error. The Court ordered that the decision of the Minister be set aside and remitted to the Minister for redetermination according to law.