SZBMR v Minister for Immigration

FEDERAL MAGISTRATES COURT OF AUSTRALIA

SZBMR v MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION & ANOR [2005] FMCA 1011

MIGRATION – Review of Refugee Review Tribunal decision – refusal of a protection visa – applicant claiming religious persecution in Mongolia – RRT not satisfied on limited material that the applicant qualified for a visa – no reviewable error found – application dismissed.

Migration Act 1958 (Cth), s.474

Minister for Immigration v VSAF of 2003 [2005] FCAFC 73
Plaintiff S157 v Commonwealth of Australia (2003) 211 CLR 476
SAAP v Minister for Immigration (2005) 215 ALR 162
SZBKB v Minister for Immigration [2005] FMCA 719

Applicant: SZBMR

First Respondent:

Second Respondent:

MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION & MULTICULTURAL & INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS

REFUGEE REVIEW TRIBUNAL

File Number: SYG1973 of 2003

Judgment of: Driver FM

Hearing date: 20 July 2005

Delivered at: Sydney

Delivered on: 20 July 2005

REPRESENTATION

The applicant appeared in person

Counsel for the Respondent: Mr M Wigney

Solicitors for the Respondent: Australian Government Solicitor

ORDERS

1. The Court directs that the transcript of today’s proceedings be obtained.

2. The Court directs that the Court provide the transcript of today’s proceedings to the Migration Agents Registration Authority for such action as the Authority considers appropriate.

3. The Refugee Review Tribunal be joined as the second respondent to the proceedings.

4. The application is dismissed.

5. The applicant is to pay the respondent’s costs and disbursements of and incidental to the application, fixed in the sum of $4,000.

FEDERAL MAGISTRATES
COURT OF AUSTRALIA AT
SYDNEY

SYG1973 of 2003

SZBMR

Applicant

And

MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION &
MULTICULTURAL & INDIGENOUS AFFAIRS

First Respondent

REFUGEE REVIEW TRIBUNAL

Second Respondent

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

(revised from transcript)

1. This is an application to review a decision of the Refugee Review Tribunal (“the RRT”).  The decision was made on 22 July 2003 and handed down on 19 August 2003.  The RRT affirmed a decision of a delegate of the Minister not to grant the applicant a protection visa.  The applicant is from Mongolia and had made claims of religious persecution.  The relevant background facts are set out in Mr Wigney's written submissions filed on 15 July 2005.  I adopt as background for the purpose of this judgment paragraphs 1.2 through to 3.2 of those written submissions:

   On 3 February 2003 the applicant, a citizen of Mongolia, arrived in Australia.  She applied for a Protection Visa (Class XA) on 3 March 2003.[1]

   ^[1]  The applicant’s initial visa application is at court book, pages 1-26.

   The basis of the applicant’s claim to entitlement to a protection visa was initially set out in answers to questions 40 to 44 of her visa application.[2]  The substance of the applicant’s claim was that she feared persecution in Mongolia for reasons of her religion.  The applicant claimed that she attended the Ulaan Baatar Baptist Church and that she and fellow members of the Baptist Church suffered violence at the hands of unnamed persons because of their religion.  She also claimed that her husband was upset that she preferred Christianity to Buddhism and was violent towards…