Shabooti v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs

Factual Background 1 Ahmad Shabooti is a citizen of Iran. He is 25 years old and is presently in immigration detention in Derby. He arrived in Australia without any lawful authority on 23 December 2000. On his arrival he was interviewed by an officer of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Notes of that interview were taken by that officer and are in the papers before the Court. 2 He applied, on 7 January 2001, for a protection visa under the Migration Act 1958 (Cth). He had a further interview with an officer of the Department on 10 January in relation to his application. On 12 February, his application for a protection visa was refused. That refusal was by an officer of the Department, acting as a delegate for the Minister. 3 On 13 February, Mr Shabooti sought a review of the delegate's decision in the Refugee Review Tribunal. Submissions were made in support of his application for review by lawyers, Macpherson & Kelley on 6 April. A copy of those submissions appear in the papers which are before the Court and they were before the Tribunal. In the course of those submissions, the lawyers told the Tribunal that Mr Shabooti belonged to an Arab tribe in a town in Iran and lived with his family there. During the war between Iran and Iraq the family had to leave the area and one of his sisters was killed in an air raid. They had to leave all their possessions behind. They moved to another town where they lived with a relative. Mr Shabooti's father was unable to gain employment. Mr Shabooti believes that this was due to the fact that he is an Arab. He finished his education but had great difficulty finding employment also, he said, because he was an Arab. Mr Shabooti said through his lawyers that in 1985 a friend of the family leased some land to them. It was farmland. He worked on the farm after school as well as his part time work in an automobile mechanic shop. In 1996 it is said that the land was taken over by the Iranian National Oil Co and the family was no longer allowed to farm there. He says his father complained to the authorities, but without any success. He tried to protest and prevent the establishment of an oil well on the land. At one time that argument became heated and he pushed one of the officials and was reported to the security forces. He said that in 1997, he and his brother and father were arrested because of their constant protests. He was detained for two days, his father for two months and his brother for six months. He said that during his detention he was beaten and had a black eye and several broken teeth. He was released on bail. 4 Mr Shabooti said that he and his family were threatened by authorities that if anything happened to the oil well they would be held responsible. In the middle of 2000 there was a fire on the land. He says the security forces raided his house after the fire. His father and brother were arrested, but he escaped through the roof. He went to a nearby village. His father and brother were released after five days, but they told him security forces were still looking for him. They told him that he was personally being held responsible for the fire. He said that because of this he was also accused of being an anti-government activist. His father told him it would be best if he left the country. He went into hiding until his family raised the money for him to do so. They sold some property and he left the country in October 2000. He left Iran legally on his own passport. He says that he paid a smuggler about $US4,200 to leave the country. He did not know whether or not he was on an airport black list. He believed that if he had been on a black list the smuggler would have paid a bribe to an airport official. In this way he would have been able to leave the country without any difficulties. 5 Mr Shabooti's lawyers' submission to the Tribunal also acknowledged that he had not, at the beginning, mentioned that his family was being blamed for the fire on the land. The lawyers also acknowledged that he had not mentioned escaping from the authorities who wanted to arrest him. They said he failed to mention these matters at his initial interview because he was under a lot of pressure and felt very stressed. He said he was very nervous at the time and was still anxious because of his lengthy trip to Australia. He was told to be as brief as possible in this interview. The additional information about the fire and the escape was put in his latest statement when he had more time to tell his story. 6 The submission that the lawyers put before the Tribunal also contained information about the current situation in Iran. It referred to the attitude of the Iranian authorities to people holding political opinions opposed to the Iranian authorities. His lawyers argued that because he had been accused of lighting a fire on the land, he would be thought of as a person with anti-government opinions. His lawyers argued to the Tribunal that Mr Shabooti would receive no protection from police or other government sources if he were returned to Iran. They argued that as an Arab living in Iran he had already faced persecution at the hands of the authorities and they said that such treatment would continue or get worse if he were returned. They then referred to the evidence of persecution of Arabs in Iran and argued that the fact that he had applied for refugee status in Australia would lead to him being persecuted when returned to Iran.