The appeal
1 This appeal is from orders of the Federal Circuit Court of Australia dismissing the appellant's application for judicial review of a decision of the Refugee Review Tribunal (the Tribunal) which affirmed the refusal of the appellant's application for a protection visa.
2 The Tribunal was satisfied that there was a real chance that the appellant would suffer serious harm by reason of his religion (the appellant is a Shia Muslim) and opinions that would be imputed to him by others (Sunni Muslims, the Taliban, and Sunni extremist groups) if he were to return to the Kurram Agency in Pakistan, but found that it was reasonable for the appellant to relocate to Karachi in Pakistan; the consequence was that the appellant was not a person in respect of whom Australia has protection obligations as set out in s 36(2) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) (the Act).
3 The primary judge concluded that the appellant had not established any ground upon which the decision of the Tribunal was affected by jurisdictional error and, accordingly, dismissed the appellant's application for judicial review (SZSSY v Minister for Immigration & Anor [2014] FCCA 748).
4 The appellant contends the primary judge erred by reason of various, overlapping grounds. Those grounds, and a summary of the appellant's contentions in support, are as follows:
(1) The Tribunal wrongly treated persecution as the the only level or kind of harm relevant to the reasonableness of relocation and failed to consider the risk of harm less than persecution which was relevant to the reasonableness of relocation. To do so was an error (MZYQU v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship (2012) 206 FCR 191; [2012] FCA 1032 at [61]-[62] (MZYQU); SZATV v Minister for Immigration and Citizenship (2007) 233 CLR 18; [2007] HCA 40 at [23]-[24] (SZATV)). The Court below, in concluding that the Tribunal "committed no error in considering whether the applicant would have a well-founded fear of Convention-related persecution in Karachi as a necessary part of its consideration of whether he could reasonably be expected to relocate there" (at [20]), misunderstood the appellant's case in this regard. The appellant did not contend that the Tribunal erred in so doing. The appellant contended that the Tribunal erred in failing to do more than this by considering "harm below persecutory harm when dealing with the reasonableness of relocation" as it was required to do (ground 1).
(2) In dealing with the risk of the appellant being persecuted in Karachi, the Tribunal made findings that were relevant to the reasonableness of the appellant relocating to Karachi. The Tribunal, however, failed to consider those findings when dealing with the relocation issue. According to the appellant this involved error, because the "range of the realities that may need to be considered on the issue of the reasonableness of relocation extends beyond physical or financial barriers preventing an applicant for refugee status from reaching safety within the country of nationality" (Randhawa v Minister for Immigration, Local Government & Ethnic Affairs [1994] FCA 535; (1994) 52 FCR 437 at 442 (Randhawa); see also the summary in MZYQU). The findings in question, relevant to the appellant relocating to Karachi (referred to by the parties as the Karachi findings), but said not to have been considered in that context are as follows:
(a) Sunni extremist groups had a presence in the city and that Shia neighbourhoods were barricaded and fortified;
(b) Karachi had witnessed a number of 'large scale attacks' on Shia targets since late 2009, including their religious processions;
(c) The Pakistan government had been unable to stop attacks on Shi'as in Karachi and elsewhere;
(d) The [appellant] was identifiable as a Pashtun Shi'a from Parachinar and that he would be perceived as an opponent of the Taliban by that group and other Sunnis and that the Taliban and other like groups had a presence in Karachi;
(e) The [appellant's] uncle was a journalist who had reported on Taliban atrocities and had, as a consequence, received threats from the Taliban including to the effect that members of his family would be killed. After the interview, the [appellant] had been followed around in Peshawar.
The Court below, said the appellant, erred in rejecting this ground. The Court considered that "the scope of any inquiry into the practicability of relocation will be determined by the objections to relocation which a particular applicant may make" (at [24]) and concluded, in consequence, that because the appellant did not specifically raise these matters with the Tribunal in the context of relocation, the Tribunal "did not need to consider such matters" (at [25]). This is an error of principle. It is well established that the Tribunal's obligation is to consider matters raised by the applicant or squarely raised on the material before the Tribunal (Htun v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (2001) 194 ALR 244; [2001] FCA 1802 at [7], [13] and [42], NABE v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (No 2) (2004) 144 FCR 1; [2004] FCAFC 263 at [61], and MZWDG v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs [2006] FCA 497 (MZWDG)). In MZWDG at [39], in particular, Young J said:
On the authorities, the Tribunal is obliged to consider at least three types of claim: first, those that are explicitly put by the applicant; secondly, those that are implicit in the material before the Tribunal; and thirdly, those that emerge from the Tribunal's findings or conclusions.
The Court below thus erred by not dealing with the issues that emerged from the Tribunal's own findings (ground 2).
(3) The appellant contended before the Court below that, amongst other things, he had raised five matters relevant to the reasonableness of relocation to Karachi, being:
(a) discrimination against him as a Shia;
(b) the lack of social and other forms of support outside the Kurram Agency;
(c) the limitations as to his access to basic services in Karachi;
(d) the lack of friends and family outside the Kurram Agency; and
(e) the increasing crime rates in Karachi.
The Tribunal was thus bound to consider each of these matters when dealing with the reasonableness of relocation, but failed to consider (a), (b) and (e) at all, and in relation to (c) and (d), considered the matters with reference only to the question whether the appellant could obtain employment, when the appellant's claims had not been limited in this way.
The reasons of the Court below for rejecting this contention were misconceived. The Court below, submitted the appellant, identified other factors the appellant had raised relevant to relocation and then stated that the Tribunal "dealt at considerable length with the applicant's objections to living [in Karachi]..." (at [27]). This, the appellant said, was insufficient; it was "still incumbent on the court below to consider whether the matters set out above were considered, which it erroneously failed to do" (ground 3).
(4) The Tribunal erred in requiring a greater degree of satisfaction as to the likelihood of the occurrence of the claimed persecution in Karachi than that required by law. A well-founded fear of persecution will exist where there is a real chance of the feared persecution occurring, even if the probability of it occurring is low (Chan Yee Kin v Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs [1989] HCA 62; (1989) 169 CLR 379 at 389, 407 and 429, Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs v Guo [1997] HCA 22; (1997) 191 CLR 559 at 572, Paramananthan v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs [1998] FCA 1693; (1998) 94 FCR 28). Having made the Karachi findings, the Tribunal's conclusion that the appellant's fear was remote discloses that it "approached the question by requiring a greater degree of satisfaction as to the likelihood of the claimed persecution occurring than that required by law".
The Court below did not deal with this argument or, to the extent it considered it, treated the argument as a complaint about fact finding. The appellant submitted that this misconceived the argument and resulted in the Court below erroneously rejecting this ground of review (ground 4).
(5) Having made the Karachi findings, the Tribunal's conclusion that the appellant's fear was remote was "one at which no rational or logical decision maker could arrive on the same evidence" in the sense referred to in Minister for Immigration and Citizenship v SZMDS (2010) 240 CLR 611; [2010] HCA 16; at [130]).
The Court below, said the appellant, erred in rejecting this ground of review. The Court concluded that although the Tribunal made the Karachi findings, the Tribunal "also relied on other evidence to conclude that such matters did not lead to a finding that the applicant had a well-founded fear of Convention-related persecution in Karachi or that it was not practicable for him to relocate there" (at [32]). However, the Court did not identify the other evidence upon which the finding was based, and there is no such other evidence (ground 5).
(6) The appellant contended before the Court below that the Tribunal had failed to take into account a relevant consideration, being the UNHCR guidelines quoted by the appellant's advisor to the Tribunal which provided that "[g]iven the wide geographic reach of some armed militant groups, a viable IFA/IRA [internal flight or relocation alternative] will generally not be available to individuals at risk of being targeted by such groups".
The UNHCR guidelines are the UNHCR Eligibility Guidelines for Assessing the International Protection Needs of Members of Religious Minorities from Pakistan, 14 May 2012.
The Court below rejected this ground of review on the basis that the UNHCR guidelines were no more than evidence and the Tribunal's reasons disclose that it "considered the applicant's particular circumstances in the context of his postulated relocation to Karachi" (at [35]).
The Court below, submitted the appellant, was in error in so doing.
First, characterising the material as evidence does not answer the ground of review. There is no bright line between evidence and claims. A failure to consider evidence can constitute a failure to consider a relevant matter (Minister for Immigration and Citizenship v SZRKT (2013) 212 FCR 99; [2013] FCA 317 at [111] (SZRKT), Minister for Immigration and Border Protection v MZYTS (2013) 136 ALD 547; [2013] FCAFC 114 at [28] (MZYTS), WAEE v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs (2003) 75 ALD 630; [2003] FCAFC 184 at [47] (WAEE), Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs v Yusuf (2001) 206 CLR 323; [2001] HCA 30 at [35] (Yusuf), and Minister for Immigration and Border Protection v SZSRS (2014) 309 ALR 67; [2014] FCAFC 16 (SZSRS)). The "critical question is what the importance of the material to the decision was and whether, in view of that importance, the court should infer from the absence of reference that it had not been considered. These were not questions the court below asked itself".
Second, the reference to the Tribunal having considered the appellant's particular circumstances is obscure and no answer to the claim; whether the Tribunal considered other matters does not address whether this particular piece of important country information was considered (ground 6).
(7) The Tribunal, having accepted the appellant's narrative concerning his uncle (who gave a television interview against the Taliban), resulting threats to his uncle and his uncle's family, and the appellant being followed in Peshawar, reasoned that because the appellant was not politically active and would not have had the profile of his uncle, the appellant would not be pursued by the Taliban in Karachi. This reasoning involved an unstated finding for which there was no evidence, namely, that for the appellant to attract persecution at the hands of the Taliban, he had to personally hold a sufficiently high political profile to warrant their interest and the Taliban would not pursue him merely because of his association with his uncle. Further, there was contrary evidence, being (i) the letter which the Tribunal accepted threatened the uncle and the uncle's family members, (ii) the following of the appellant after his uncle's interview, which the Tribunal accepted could be related, (iii) the UNHCR guidelines which indicated that relocation was not generally viable because of the reach of militants, and (iv) the accepted facts that the interview of the appellant's uncle was conducted in the capital of Pakistan (Islamabad), on a national television station (AVT Khyber TV), which immediately resulted in the appellant being followed around in Peshawar. Alternatively, the Tribunal's finding involved a failure to consider the matters set out in (i) to (iv) which were relevant considerations (a claim the Minister contended had not been put below, was not in the notice of appeal, and required leave to now be raised), or a misconstruction of the appellant's claim.
The Court below rejected this ground of review on the basis that the Tribunal "should be understood to be saying that before being targeted by the Taliban a person would have to have a "profile" or some characteristic which would cause that targeting" and was simply unpersuaded by the appellant's argument that his familial relationship to his uncle was such a profile (at [38]). This, said the appellant, was in error because theTribunal, from its reasons at [89]-[90], proceeded "on the basis, in the absence of evidence and without having regard to the relevant considerations set out above, that the Taliban would only pursue the [appellant] if he had his own independent profile". The Court below also failed to address the relevant considerations ground; to say the Tribunal "was unpersuaded says nothing about whether, in the process of being unpersuaded, it had regard to the considerations before it that were relevant to its findings in this regard" (ground 7).
(8) The appellant did not press ground 8.
(9) The Court below rejected the appellant's contention that the Tribunal should have, but failed, to consider whether a situation of generalised violence in Karachi engaged Australia's complementary protection obligations. Generalised violence can engage protection obligations (MZYQU at [62]). According to the appellant, the Court below erred in failing to apply MZYQU (ground 9).