SZOQS v Minister for Immigration

[2011] FMCA 212

FEDERAL MAGISTRATES COURT OF AUSTRALIA

SZOQS v MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION & ANOR [2011] FMCA 212

MIGRATION – Application to review decision of Refugee Review Tribunal – application dismissed.

Migration Act 1958 (Cth), ss.91R, 425

Minister for Immigration and Citizenship v SZNPG (2010) 115 ALD 303; [2010] FCAFC 51
Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs v Wu Shan Liang and Others (1996) 185 CLR 259; [1996] HCA 6
SZBEL v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs and Another (2006) 228 CLR 152; [2006] HCA 63

Applicant: SZOQS

First Respondent: MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION & CITIZENSHIP

Second Respondent: REFUGEE REVIEW TRIBUNAL

File Number: SYG 2111 of 2010

Judgment of: Barnes FM

Hearing date: 22 March 2011

Delivered at: Sydney

Delivered on: 22 March 2011

REPRESENTATION

Applicant: In person

Solicitors for the Respondents: Australian Government Solicitor

ORDERS

1. The application be dismissed.

2. The applicant pay the costs of the first respondent fixed in the sum of $4,000.

FEDERAL MAGISTRATES
COURT OF AUSTRALIA
AT SYDNEY

SYG 2111 of 2010

SZOQS

Applicant

And

MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION & CITIZENSHIP

First Respondent

REFUGEE REVIEW TRIBUNAL

Second Respondent

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

(Revised from Transcript)

1. This is an application for review of a decision of the Refugee Review Tribunal dated 24 August 2010.  The Tribunal affirmed the decision of a delegate of the first respondent not to grant the applicant a protection visa. 

2. The applicant, a citizen of India, arrived in Australia in early 2007 as the holder of a student visa.  His then current student visa was cancelled on 13 September 2007.  Thereafter he held a series of bridging visas, including during a time when he had proceedings in the Federal Court in relation to the cancellation of his student visa.

3. The applicant lodged his application for a protection visa in January 2010.  His application was refused and he sought review by the Tribunal.  He attended a Tribunal hearing.  The only evidence before the court of what occurred in the Tribunal hearing is the Tribunal reasons for decision. 

4. In its reasons for decision the Tribunal summarised the applicant’s claims made in his protection visa application, at a Departmental interview and at the Tribunal hearing.  In essence, the applicant claimed to fear persecution in India because he is a Sikh who married a Hindu woman whose family opposed the marriage.  He claimed that his wife converted to Sikhism at the time of the marriage.  The applicant claimed that he first considered marriage in 2006; his wife’s parents had rung him in 2006 and 2007 telling him to stay away from her (as did his wife’s brother); and they married in 2007. 

5. He claimed to fear in particular that if he returned to India, his wife’s brother would threaten him or harm him because of his marriage.  He also claimed to fear that his wife’s family would consider he had not made a success of his life (which was the condition of their marriage) and that they would pressure his wife to divorce him.

6. The Tribunal accepted that…