BJQ16 v Minister for Immigration

The applicant, BJQ16, sought judicial review of a decision by the Immigration Assessment Authority (IAA) which affirmed the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection's refusal to grant him a Safe Haven Enterprise (Subclass 790) visa. The applicant, an unauthorised maritime arrival from Sri Lanka, was permitted to apply for this visa after the Minister lifted a bar under section 46A(2) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). As a "fast track applicant" under section 5(1) of the Act, his case fell within the review scheme established by Part 7AA of the Act.

The central legal issue before the Court was whether the IAA's decision affirming the refusal of the protection visa was affected by jurisdictional error. This required the Court to consider the applicant's claims of persecution in Sri Lanka, including allegations of abduction, ransom demands, threats from paramilitary groups linked to the Sri Lankan government, and fear of detention upon return due to his ethnicity, past asylum claim, and perceived association with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The Court was required to determine if the IAA had properly considered these claims within the framework of Part 7AA of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth), which provides for a limited review of specified adverse protection visa decisions. The reasoning would involve assessing whether the IAA's findings were open to it on the evidence presented and whether it had applied the correct legal principles in assessing the applicant's claims for protection. The Court noted that the nature and scope of Part 7AA had been previously detailed in Federal Court decisions such as *Minister for Immigration and Border Protection v AMA16* [2017] FCAFC 136.