austlii:cth/FedCFamC2G/2025/119
General information, not legal advice.
FedCFamC2G
2026-02-04
Original judgment source is linked above.
FEDERAL CIRCUIT AND FAMILY COURT OF AUSTRALIA (DIVISION 2)
MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS
Note: The form of the order is subject to the entry in the Court's records.
Note: The Court may vary or set aside a judgment or order to remedy minor typographical or grammatical errors (r 17.05(2)(g) Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2) (General Federal Law) Rules 2021 (Cth)), or to record a variation to the order pursuant to r 17.05 Federal Circuit and Family Court of Australia (Division 2) (General Federal Law) Rules 2021 (Cth).
Particulars
- The IAA rejected critical parts of the applicant's evidence at [13] of its decision on the basis that the applicant's evidence was "simply not credible".
- The IAA put forward no explanation or reasoning for why it considered this to be the case.
- The assumption made by the IAA was not one that was obvious or a matter of ordinary experience.
- The IAA did not rely on any evidence about the position in Sri Lanka at the relevant time that could have formed the basis for its conclusion that the applicant's account was "simply not credible".
As he has consistently made the claim, I accept that his brother was in the LTTE from 2006, was captured by the authorities in 2009 and went missing while he was in detention in 2009. Given the country information concerning the routine monitoring and harassment that was occurring in the north and east of Sri Lanka at the relevant time, I also accept that the SLA detained the applicant in 2009; during his detention he was tortured and questioned about his brother's whereabouts; after he was released he had to regularly report to the SLA and sign in; and on some occasions when signing in he was also beaten. His claims advanced at the SHEV interview about twice daily reporting and hiding from soon after his release in 2009 until he left Sri Lanka in 2013, is simply not credible. I reject those details he provided at the SHEV interview as an exaggeration and prefer his evidence in the SHEV statement. As such, I find that he was detained, questioned and tortured for one week in 2009 by the SLA who were looking for his brother, after his release he was required to sign in on a monthly basis and I accept that it continued until he left Sri Lanka. I accept he went to live at his aunt's home about a year before he left Sri Lanka but I am not satisfied on the information before me that he was hiding at that or any other time while he was in Sri Lanka. As such action is consistent with the applicant ceasing to sign in with the SLA after May 2013, I am also prepared to accept that the Sri Lankan authorities, whether the SLA or CID [Criminal Investigation Department], turned up at his family home once or twice in 2013 or early 2014 to ask about the applicant's whereabouts.
However, from that time on [2009], I was forced to report to an Army camp once a month to sign in, so the Army could keep track of me. If I was a few days late in signing in, I would be questioned about the reasons for my lateness, and often beaten by the Army officers if they didn't think my reasons were good enough.
...
In 2012, the family decided that I should flee my hometown of Wavunia and go live with my mother's younger sister in Pavakulam, another town. Originally, it was just going to be for a month, but it ended up being for a whole year. In Pavakulam I wasn't able to go out on the streets because it was too risky. I had to stay in the house at all times.
The applicant also stated in his written application that he was forced to report to an Army camp once a month to sign in and was often beaten by the Army officers. However at interview, the applicant stated he had to report morning and night daily. This is a significant difference and one which would have had a significant impact on his ability to attend school and work. I note that it would also have been difficult for him to maintain this as he stayed at different locations, presumably of varying proximity to the camp, as he claimed at interview. I accept that the applicant was required to report monthly to the authorities, as was common at the time. I do not accept that he was required to report every morning and evening to the authorities.
Inconsistencies also existed in his reports regarding his living situation after he was detained in 2009. In his written application he stated that he remained at his family home until relocating to his mother's younger sister's house in Pavakulam in 2012. He said that he and his family decided to do this as they were scared because people who were required to report often disappeared or were killed by the Army. He stated that it was risky for him to leave his aunts home, and therefore stayed in her house at all times, for the year that he was there. I note that this is at odds with his assertion that he continued to report morning and night to the camp at the school in Vavuniya up until the time he left Sri Lanka. It is also difficult to understand why he suddenly felt more at risk some three years after his detention when there had been no further problems, and why he even felt the need to go into hiding when he was reporting daily to the authorities anyway.
When asked at interview about how he maintained the twice daily reporting requirement when living at his aunt's house, some 22 kilometres away, the application stated that he got the bus morning and night. He also said that to save money he would stay in town during the day. This response isn't fitting with his assertion that he was fearful of the authorities and in hiding. I note that the applicant was also vague about how long it took to travel from his aunt's house to school and therefore find it likely that any period of residence at his aunts occurred after he completed his schooling in December 2010.
At interview, he claimed that after his release from detention in 2009 he returned to his family home where he resided for one to two months before moving around from place to place before staying at his aunt's house. He said that he did this as he was fearful that the authorities would return to his family home and detain him again. When asked about where he had stayed and how long for, the applicant's responses were vague. In relation to the duration of time he stayed with friends, he initially said that he wouldn't stay long as he didn't want to raise suspicion with anyone and then said that he would stay with different friends anywhere from 6 to 8 months at a time.
Again, it is difficult to understand why he went into hiding at different locations, when he continued to maintain a public life visible to the authorities. He has said that he continued attending school until December 2010 and was then employed at Star Tailors in Vavuniya from April 2011 to April 2012. If he was truly fearful of the authorities to the point that he felt he needed to live transiently, it seems at odds that he would continue his education and employment and maintain his reporting requirements. While the security situation improved after the end of the war, military and security forces maintained a significant presence in the Northern Province and specifically Vavuniya. If the authorities really wanted him I believe they could have located him at either place. It also doesn't make sense why he would be seeking to hide from the authorities while still reporting every morning and night, when they could have detained him and reportedly did physically harm him. Based on the above, I am prepared to accept that the applicant resided with his aunt for a period of time between after he finished his schooling in December 2010 and his departure from Sri Lanka in 2013. I do not accept that this was because he and his family felt that he was at significant risk of detention by the authorities but do acknowledge that safety and security considerations may have factored into this decision. I do not accept that the applicant lived a transient lifestyle moving regularly from house to house from December 2009 until his departure from Sri Lanka in 2013.
On the current state of the authorities, it seems to me that the better view is that there is no freestanding ground of unwarranted assumptions. However, the making of unwarranted assumptions as part of a credit finding may be reviewed on rationality grounds (DAO16) or because the decision maker has failed duly to consider the question raised by the material (WAGO and BZD17). For myself, the former test is easier to apply in practice in the sense that it appears less conclusory...
...
Thus, a party relying upon an unwarranted assumption to establish jurisdictional error will need to establish that the assumption is not one which a reasonable decision maker could make. Another way of asking this question is to ask whether the decision has an evident and intelligible basis: Minister for Immigration and Border Protection v SZVFW [2018] HCA 30; 264 CLR 541 at [10] per Kiefel CJ, [82] per Nettle and Gordon JJ, citing Minister for Immigration and Citizenship v Li [2013] HCA 18; 249 CLR 332 at [76] per Hayne, Kiefel and Bell JJ. In this case, therefore, this means that the question for decision is whether the Tribunal's impugned credit findings were ones which could reasonably be arrived at or whether they lacked an evident and intelligible justification.
The question here, rather, is whether the Tribunal made an unwarranted assumption which, as I have explained above, devolves to inquiring as to whether the assumption was one which could reasonably be made (or which had an evident or intelligible justification).
The availability of a reasonable alternative hypothesis does not, on its own, demonstrate that the assumption made by the Tribunal was unwarranted in the sense of being unreasonable. As the cases to which I have referred show, something more is required. The appellant has not shown, for example, that the weight of evidence overwhelmingly supported her preferred hypothesis or that the assumption made by the Tribunal had at its foundation a false premise...
I certify that the preceding forty-eight (48) numbered paragraphs are a true copy of the Reasons for Judgment of Judge Gerrard.
COG19
Minister for Immigration and Citizenship [2025] FedCFamC2G 119
(2003) 211 CLR 476
(2018) 258 FCR 175