SZKIB v Minister for Immigration

FEDERAL MAGISTRATES COURT OF AUSTRALIA

SZKIB v MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION & ANOR [2008] FMCA 769

MIGRATION – RRT decision – Chinese applicant claiming political persecution for anti-government activity – disbelieved by Tribunal – no jurisdictional error found – application dismissed.

Migration Act 1958 (Cth)

NADH of 2001 v Minister for Immigration & Multicultural & Indigenous Affairs (2005) 214 ALR 264
Re Minister for Immigration & Multicultural Affairs; Ex Parte Applicant S20 (2003)198 ALR 59
SZBEL v Minister for Immigration & Multicultural & Indigenous Affairs (2006) 228 CLR 152

Applicant: SZKIB

First Respondent: MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION & CITIZENSHIP

Second Respondent: REFUGEE REVIEW TRIBUNAL

File Number: SYG 3720 of 2007

Judgment of: Smith FM

Hearing date: 2 June 2008

Delivered at: Sydney

Delivered on: 2 June 2008

REPRESENTATION

Counsel for the Applicant: In Person

Counsel for the First Respondent: Ms S Kantaria

Solicitors for the Respondents: Clayton Utz

ORDERS

1. The application is dismissed.

2. The applicant must pay the first respondent’s costs in the sum of $2,830

FEDERAL MAGISTRATES
COURT OF AUSTRALIA AT
SYDNEY

SYG 3720 of 2007

SZKIB

Applicant

And

MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION & CITIZENSHIP

First Respondent

REFUGEE REVIEW TRIBUNAL

Second Respondent

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

(revised from transcript)

1. The applicant arrived in Australia in August 2006 on a Chinese passport issued to a different person, containing an Australian business visa issued to that person, and with the applicant's photograph substituted for that person’s photograph. On 13 September 2006 a migration agent, Priscilla Yu, lodged an application for a protection visa on behalf of the applicant. A statutory declaration attached to the application set out the history upon which the applicant sought protection against return to the People's Republic of China.

2. The applicant claimed that she and her husband had been working in a seafood business owned by her father. In December 2000, her husband had been beaten up by the owner of a seafood restaurant (‘Mr Z’), when he tried to obtain payment of outstanding accounts. Her husband was “tied up” and sent to the Public Security Bureau, with the accusation that he attempted to rob the seafood restaurant owner. This person had powerful connections, and witnesses gave false evidence against her husband. He was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment in July 2001.

3. She claimed that since that time “I have spent nearly five years to seek appeal for my husband's case”.  She referred to visiting government agencies for that purpose.  In 2005 she met a teacher (‘teacher L’), who was a new graduate and was the teacher of her daughter.  The teacher helped the applicant to write petitions, and:

   14. From 2006, in order to get support from the public and create pressure against those corruptive government officials, Teacher L suggested me to widely distribute copies of my petition in (her town), in Fuqing City, and in Fuzhou City.  She assisted me to draft the petition, and made thousands of copies of it; and she also organised some of her students, including my daughter, to distribute…