NAOV v Minister for Immigration

FEDERAL MAGISTRATES COURT OF AUSTRALIA

NAOV v MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION [2004] FMCA 202

MIGRATION – Application for review of decision of Refugee Review Tribunal – no jurisdictional error.

Minister for Immigration & Multicultural Affairs, Ex parte Durairajasingham (1999) 168 ALR 407
VAAW v Ministerfor Immigration [2003] FCAFC 259
SBBS v Ministerfor Immigration & Multicultural & Indigenous Affairs [2002] FCAFC 361
ChanYee Kin v Minister for Immigration & Ethnic Affairs (1989) 169 CLR 179
Kopalapillai v Minister for Immigration & Multicultural Affairs (1998) 86 FCR 547
Randhawa v Minister for Immigration & Local Government & Ethnic Affairs (1994) 124 ALR 265
Aziz vThe Minister for Immigration & Multicultural Affairs (2002) 1985 ALR 166
Kioa v West (1985) 159 CLR 550

Applicant: NAOV

Respondent: MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION & MULTICULTURAL & INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS

File No: SZ1248 of 2003

Delivered on: 18 March 2004

Delivered at: Sydney

Hearing date: 18 March 2004

Judgment of: Barnes FM

REPRESENTATION

Counsel for the Applicant: Nil

Solicitors for the Applicant: Nil

Counsel for the Respondent: Mr M. Wigney

Solicitors for the Respondent: Clayton Utz

ORDERS

1. That the application be dismissed.

2. That the applicant pay the respondent's costs fixed in the sum of $4,000.

FEDERAL MAGISTRATES
COURT OF AUSTRALIA AT
SYDNEY

SZ1248 of 2003

NAOV

Applicant

And

MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION & MULTICULTURAL & INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS

Respondent

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

1. This is an application for review of a decision of the Refugee Review Tribunal (the Tribunal) that was made on 10 March 2003 and handed down on 1 April 2003 affirming a decision of a delegate of the respondent to refuse to grant the applicant a protection visa.

2. The applicant is a citizen of Bangladesh who arrived in Australia on 7 February 1999.  He applied for a protection visa on 26 October 2001.  The application was refused by a delegate of the respondent on

   
   

   27 November 2001 and the applicant sought review by the Tribunal on 24 December 2001.

3. The applicant made claims in connection with his protection visa application and provided further submissions through his migration agent on two occasions in connection with his application for review by the Tribunal.

4. The basis of the applicant's claim for a protection visa was that he feared persecution in Bangladesh for reason of his political opinion and also as a result of the circumstances surrounding and the existence of an extra-marital relationship.  He claimed that he had been an activist for the Jatiya party and a follower of President Ershad during his years at school and college and had been office-holder in his college branch of the party, and that when the Bangladeshi Nationalist Party (the BNP) came to power in 1992 he was targeted by the government and that a few false cases were laid against him.

5. He went to India in 1993 to study at university and remained there until 1997.  He married a Bangladeshi woman in 1995.  He returned to Bangladesh in 1997 and came to Australia in 1999.  After coming to Australia he formed…