Authority's decision
12 The Authority summarised the appellant's claims to satisfy the criteria for a SHEV as follows (Authority reasons at [3]):
(a) the appellant fears harm from the EDPP because he is from a LTTE family;
(b) the appellant fears harm from the CID who have previously tried to extort money from him and his cousin because they thought he and his cousin were earning a lot of money and because they are Tamil;
(c) the appellant fears that the Sri Lankan authorities, including the CID, do not want to see Tamil people prosper and make good livelihoods;
(d) the SLA tried to kill him because his was Tamil; and
(e) the appellant fears harm because he left Sri Lanka illegally.
13 The Authority accepted some, but not all, of the appellant's claims as to what had occurred to him and members of his family in Sri Lanka. Specifically, the Authority accepted the following claims (Authority reasons at [18], see also [39]):
I accept that the applicant and his family lived in Jaffna, subject to displacements between 1995 to 1999, until they moved in 2006 to LTTE controlled Kilinochchi; after the SLA took over control of Kilinochchi towards the end of the war, the applicant and his family were placed in Manik Farm IDP [Internally Displaced People] camp from February 2009 to September 2009; on release from the camp his family moved back to Jaffna; and in around April 2010 the applicant moved to Kilinochchi and started a lorry driving business. I accept that the applicant's family moved to Kilinochchi in 2006 after a paramilitary group took his family's NICs [National Identity Cards]; that just after they left their house was burnt down by the SLA/paramilitary group; that the applicant was questioned twice by the CID at Manik Farm; that the applicant was threatened by the CID on his release from Manik Farm; that after his release from Manik Farm the EPDP/CID questioned the applicant a number of times while he was in Jaffna; that the EPDP/CID also questioned his family once and his older brother a number of times, but not to the same extent as the applicant; and that after he moved there in April 2010 the applicant was questioned by the CID and police on occasion in Kilinochchi. The applicant has consistently maintained from his first interview with the Department that his sister was in the LTTE. Although I have some reservations about the applicant's claim that his sister's forced recruitment by the LTTE occurred when she was at school as the LTTE lost control of Jaffna where the family was living at the time in December 1995, I am prepared to accept his general claim that his sister was forcibly recruited into the LTTE in around 2004. I also accept that his sister worked in the medical and food sections of the LTTE; that she received military training from the LTTE; that she left the LTTE around the time the family was sent to Manik Farm and she joined them there; that the family revealed to the SLA that his sister was in the LTTE; that she was not sent for rehabilitation but was released from Manik Farm in September 2009 with the rest of the family; that she and the rest of his family continue to reside in Sri Lanka and they are okay; and that the applicant was not a member of the LTTE.
14 The Authority also accepted that the EPDP/CID visited the appellant's house four or so times in 2010 and 2011 while the appellant was in Kilinochchi to ask after his whereabouts (Authority reasons at [23]).
15 However, the Authority had concerns about other aspects of the truthfulness of the appellant's claims (Authority reasons at [19]). In particular:
(a) The Authority was concerned about an inconsistency in the appellant's evidence as to whether the SLA had tried to kill him. The appellant claimed in his SHEV application that "many times" "government people" had tried to kill him. However, subsequently, in his SHEV interview with the delegate, he said that the CID had threatened him but had not attempted to kill or hurt him (Authority reasons at [20]).
(a) The Authority accepted that one of the appellant's sisters had been recruited into the LTTE. However, the appellant claimed for the first time at his SHEV interview that another sister of his had been arrested by the SLA in 1990 and imprisoned on suspicion of LTTE involvement until 2000. In 1990, the appellant's sisters were 10, 11 and 13 years old. The Authority found that this claim was a fabrication because of the belated mention of the incident by the appellant and the implausibility of the Sri Lankan authorities detaining a girl aged 13 years or younger for ten years (Authority reasons at [21]).
(b) In his 2013 statutory declaration, the appellant claimed that the CID had tried to extort money from the appellant and his cousin in Kilinochchi. When asked at the SHEV interview whether there was anything in particular that made the appellant leave Sri Lanka, he did not mention the extortion attempt but claimed that the CID had abducted his cousin. The appellant claimed that the cousin had been held for two days but had subsequently left Sri Lanka. The appellant could not remember the cousin's name. The Authority did not accept this aspect of the appellant's claim because of the belated mention of it, his inability to remember his cousin's name, his inconsistent statements about where his cousin was now living and the unlikelihood that the appellant would turn to the CID to find his cousin if the CID had previously harassed the appellant (Authority reasons at [22]).
16 Having regard to country information (including the UNHCR's current Eligibility Guidelines for Sri Lanka and the risk factors identified therein), the Authority was not satisfied that the appellant would be at risk of serious harm by reason of any real or imputed LTTE links or political opinion. It explained (Authority reasons at [40]):
First, residing in a LTTE controlled area does not on the evidence indicate a need for protection. Secondly, the Sri Lankan authorities were aware that his sister was a member of the LTTE when the family was held at Manik Farm and didn't send his sister to rehabilitation like many other LTTE members or suspected members, but released her and her family, including the applicant, without any further restrictions. Thirdly although he was questioned and threatened by the EPDP and CID in Jaffna and by the CID and police in Kilinochchi, he was never physically harmed and does not claim to have been arrested or detained by the authorities. Fourthly, the questioning and harassment of Tamils in the north and the east, particularly the questioning of returnees from IDP camps, was common or routine under the former Rajapaksa government. Fifthly, on my findings, none of the applicant's family, including his LTTE sister, have been arrested or detained by the authorities. Sixthly, the destruction of his family's home occurred during the war and there is no suggestion in the evidence that the authorities have seized or damaged any of the family's property since the end of the war. Seventhly, on my findings, the Sri Lankan authorities have shown no interest in the applicant or his family since he left Sri Lanka for Australia in August 2012. I am not satisfied that the authorities would have had any adverse interest in the applicant if he had remained in Sri Lanka or that he would be of any adverse interest to the current Sri Lankan authorities on return. Given the above factors, and the country information, I consider that any risk of harm to the applicant from the authorities based on his profile is remote.
17 The Authority also specifically considered the risk to the appellant arising from the facts that he had been questioned by the EPDP on a number of occasions in 2009 and 2010, and that the EPDP and CID had questioned his parents about his whereabouts on four or so occasions in 2010 and 2011 (Authority reasons at [42]). However, the Authority considered that the authorities "had only a routine interest" in the appellant (Authority reasons at [43]):
Based on country information discussed above that suggests the questioning and harassment of Tamils in the north, including returnees from IDP camps, was common, the nature of his questioning by the EPDP and that he was not arrested, detained or physically harmed by them, I am satisfied that the EPDP, like the CID, had only a routine interest in the applicant. On my findings, the EPDP last enquired about the applicant in 2011. The EPDP showed only a limited interest in the applicant's family, including his older brother, together with questioning his LTTE sister only once. Given their interest in the applicant, and his family, was routine and that five or six years have passed since they last showed any interest in the applicant in 2011, I am not satisfied that the applicant faces a real chance of harm from the EPDP, if returned to Sri Lanka, now or in the reasonably foreseeable future.
18 The Authority then specifically considered the risk to the appellant arising from the fact that the appellant would be considered by the authorities to be a failed asylum seeker who departed Sri Lanka illegally (Authority reasons at [44], see also [51]). The Authority noted that there are a small number of reports of mistreatment of failed asylum seekers on return and accepted that a returning asylum seeker with actual or perceived links to the LTTE would be at risk of harm. However, the Authority found that that would not be the case for the appellant, concluding (Authority reasons at [51]):
…based on my findings, notwithstanding his sister being a known member of the LTTE, his family's residence in the LTTE controlled areas during the war and his routine questioning by the CID, EPDP and police, the applicant was not of any interest to the former Sri Lankan authorities at the time he left Sri Lanka and the authorities have shown no interest in him since he departed Sri Lanka".
19 Taking these matters into account, the Authority was not satisfied the appellant faced a risk of adverse attention from Sri Lankan authorities on his return (Authority reasons at [52]).