SZLES and Anor v Minister For Immigration And Citizenship and Anor

[2008] HCASL 480

SZLES & ANOR
v
MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND CITIZENSHIP & ANOR
[2008] HCASL 480
S253/2008

1. The applicants are husband and wife and are citizens of India.  On 19 May 2007 a delegate of the first respondent refused their application for protection visas.  On 2 August 2007 the Refugee Review Tribunal affirmed the delegate's decision.  Only the applicant husband made specific claims under the Convention.  The applicant claimed to have been extorted, threatened and attacked by Rabari moneylenders.  He claimed to have been too afraid to tell the police, as doing so would have further endangered him and his family.  The applicant also claimed that he faced persecution because of his membership of the BJP party, as the moneylenders belonged to the Congress party.  The Tribunal found that the applicant was not a credible witness.  The Tribunal did not accept that the applicant feared persecution on the basis of his membership of any particular social group or of the BJP.  To the extent that the Tribunal accepted that the applicant may have been extorted, this did not constitute Convention-related harm.

2. On 12 February 2008 the Federal Magistrates Court (Emmett FM) dismissed an application for review of the Tribunal's decision. Her Honour dismissed claims that the Tribunal erred in its understanding of the test for persecution, that it breached s 424A of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), that it erred in applying the relocation principle, and that it had not complied with its statutory obligations in conducting the review.

3. On 19 May 2008 Jessup J dismissed an appeal to the Federal Court. His Honour dismissed the sole claim, that the Tribunal had breached s 424A. The Tribunal's decision involved no information to which that section might have applied.

4. The application to this Court advances no question of law that would justify the grant of special leave to appeal.  There is no reason to doubt the correctness of the decisions below. 

5. Pursuant to r 41.10.5 we direct the Registrar to draw up, sign and seal an order dismissing the application.

W.M.C. Gummow	S.M. Kiefel
28 August 2008