NAGJ v Minister for Immigration

FEDERAL MAGISTRATES COURT OF AUSTRALIA

NAGJ v MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION [2003] FMCA 508

MIGRATION – Visa – protection visa – Refugee Review Tribunal – review of Refugee Review Tribunal decision – application for a protection visa – where Applicant did not attend the hearing of the Refugee Review Tribunal – no reviewable error shown.

Judiciary Act 1903 (Cth), s.39B
Migration Act 1958 (Cth), ss.91R, 474

MIEA v Guo & Anor (1997) 191 CLR 559

Applicant: NAGJ of 2003

Respondent: MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION & MULTICULTURAL & INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS

File No: SZ 1153 of 2003

Delivered on: 28 October 2003

Delivered at: Sydney

Hearing date: 28 October 2003

Judgment of: Scarlett FM

REPRESENTATION

The Applicant: Appeared on his own behalf

Counsel for the Respondent: Mr Reilly

Solicitors for the Respondent: Blake Dawson Waldron

ORDERS

1. The Application is dismissed

2. The Applicant is to pay the Respondent’s costs of this Application in the sum of $4,000.00.

FEDERAL MAGISTRATES
COURT OF AUSTRALIA AT
SYDNEY

SZ 1153 of 2003

NAGJ

Applicant

And

MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION & MULTICULTURAL & INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS

Respondent

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

Application

1. The application before the court today is an application to review a decision of the Refugee Review Tribunal which was handed down on 20 November 2002. In the decision, the Refugee Review Tribunal affirmed the decision of a delegate of the respondent not to grant a protection visa to the applicant. The applicant is known in these proceedings by the letters NAGJ as a requirement of section 91X of the Migration Act 1958.  That section forbids the publication of the name of an applicant for a protection visa.

2. The applicant is a citizen of the Ukraine.  He arrived in Australia on

   
   

   25 November 2000.  He arrived lawfully after having spent some time in England as a tourist.  His wife and children are apparently still in the Ukraine.  The applicant applied for a protection visa on 8 January 2001.  In his application, the applicant provided a two page statement.  In that statement, he set out the reasons why he wanted a protection visa.  He said that he was unwilling to go back to his home country.  He said that he had suffered harassment amounting to persecution because of his religious beliefs.

3. He said that he feared that he would get into trouble on his return.  In his statement, the applicant said that his whole family had belonged to the Greek Catholic Church.  The Greek Catholic Church is dominant in Western Ukraine.  He said that his father had served time in prison for his religious beliefs during the time of the Soviet government.  The applicant says that he was married in 1984.  His wife, he said, is a deeply religious person.  She persuaded him to join the Orthodox Church.  His mother and brothers tried to persuade him not to do so. 

4. He went ahead to join the Orthodox Church.  As a result his family said they did not want to know him.  In his statement, the applicant described a dispute between the…