MZXMX v Minister for Immigration

FEDERAL MAGISTRATES COURT OF AUSTRALIA

MZXMX v MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION & ANOR [2007] FMCA 1346

MIGRATION – Protection visa – whether jurisdictional error – application dismissed.

Migration Act 1958, s.420

Applicant M164/2002 v Minister for Immigration & Multicultural & Indigenous Affairs [2006] FCAFC 16
Firuzibakhsh v Minister for Immigration & Multicultural Affairs [2002] FCA 982
Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v Eshetu (1999) 197 CLR 611

Applicant: MZXMX

First Respondent: MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION & CITIZENSHIP

Second Respondent: REFUGEE REVIEW TRIBUNAL

File number: MLG 1306 of 2006

Judgment of: McInnis FM

Hearing date: 29 May 2007

Delivered at: Melbourne

Delivered on: 10 August 2007

REPRESENTATION

Applicant: In person

Counsel for the First Respondent: Mr C.J. Horan

Solicitors for the First Respondent: Australian Government Solicitor

ORDERS

1. The name of the First Respondent be changed to “Minister for Immigration and Citizenship”.

2. The Application be dismissed.

3. The Applicant shall pay the First Respondent’s costs fixed in the sum of $5,000.00.

FEDERAL MAGISTRATES
COURT OF AUSTRALIA AT
MELBOURNE

MLG 1306 of 2006

MZXMX

Applicant

And

MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION & CITIZENSHIP

First Respondent

REFUGEE REVIEW TRIBUNAL

Second Respondent

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

1. The Applicant relies upon an amended application filed 6 February 2007.  In that application, the Applicant seeks judicial review of a decision of the Refugee Review Tribunal ("the Tribunal") dated 30 August 2006.  In its decision, the Tribunal affirmed a decision of a delegate of the First Respondent to refuse to grant a protection visa to the Applicant. 

2. The Applicant is a citizen of Sri Lanka who arrived in Australia on 14 August 2000.  The Applicant's husband and two children were included in the application as members of her family unit.  The Applicant claimed to fear persecution from the Liberation Tamil Tigers of Eelam ("LTTE").  The Applicant claimed that she and her family fled Sri Lanka because of threats from LTTE terrorists and alleged they had targeted her family and threatened to kill them for giving information about the terrorists to Sri Lankan police.

3. Specifically, according to the Tribunal decision, the Applicant's claim included the following:

   “She lived in a flat in a big apartment building.  One night they noticed some youngsters entering a dimly lit apartment, and have seen them on several nights since.  The apartment was closed during the day, which made her (and her neighbours) suspicious.  The applicant's husband alerted the police, who searched thoroughly in and around the (padlocked and apparently uninhabited) premises, and found documents revealing that the occupants (or visitors) were LTTE terrorists.

   On 4 April 2000 the police arrested four persons suspected of being involved in violent activities.  The next day the applicants received an anonymous call threatening to kill them and demanding that they mind their own business.  But despite this the applicants continued to spy on the suspects and inform the authorities about them.”

   (Court Book p.204)

4. According to the Tribunal decision, the Applicant then made further claims of more threats which occurred after this event, causing the Applicant and her family to…