SZWMO v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection
[2018] FCA 319
At a glance
Source factsCourt
Federal Court of Australia
Decision date
2018-03-16
Before
Wilcox J, Farrell J
Source
Original judgment source is linked above.
Judgment (10 paragraphs)
Background 6 The applicant is a citizen of Sri Lanka who arrived in Australia as an unauthorised maritime arrival on 13 June 2012. He was born in the Northwest Province of Sri Lanka, he is a Tamil, a Hindu and at the time the Tribunal made its decision, he was 25 years old and unmarried.
Applicant's claims for protection 7 In its decision record (or DR) dated 14 January 2015, the Tribunal recorded the following in relation to claims made by the applicant at [9]-[11]: 9. Based on his Protection visa application and statutory declaration of 22 October 2012, the applicant's claims are as follows: a. He left Sri Lanka because there is no freedom and no guarantee he would be alive if he was there. b. One night at about 12:30 am, after taking a cousin to hospital in [name of village], the applicant was stopped just outside by two soldiers patrolling on a motorcycle. The soldiers, who were drunk, asked him in broken Tamil why he was there. He replied that he had to take his cousin to emergency. The soldiers told him he was not supposed to be there at night and one of them pointed the pistol at the applicant's head and then his abdomen. He said that if he saw the applicant at night again he would shoot him. The soldiers then drove off. The applicant was so scared he ran back home. c. The applicant fears that if he returns to Sri Lanka he will be physically harmed, including being beaten with sticks and rods; jailed; and abducted by the Sri Lankan police, army or Central Intelligence Department (CID) because he is a Tamil and because he left Sri Lanka. d. He does not believe the authorities will protect him; or that there is any place in Sri Lanka where he could be safe because 'there is no place in Sri Lanka that does not have Sinhalese people'. e. The applicant completed Grade 10 at high school in 2005, and then worked as a labourer in [name of village] and [name of town] from 2006 to 2012. His parents and 29-year-old brother are still living in [name of village]. 10. In their submission to the Tribunal of 29 December 2014, the applicant's advisor submitted that the applicant had a well-founded fear of persecution by reason of his Tamil ethnicity; his imputed political opinion of support for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and opposition to the Sri Lankan government; and his membership of the particular social group of failed asylum seekers returning to Sri Lanka. The advisor's submissions elaborated on these issues, including excerpts of country information. 11. Relevant points from the applicant's hearing before the Tribunal were as follows: a. The applicant said he did not tell everything at his Department interview; but he would do so in detail at the Tribunal as he had sworn to tell the truth. b. Regarding his encounter with the two Sri Lankan Army soldiers outside the hospital, which he said took place one night around May 2011, the applicant said that when they interrogated him, he asked whether they would be questioning him if he was Sinhalese and not Tamil. This annoyed the soldiers, who asked his name and address; then put a gun to his head; said he was talking too much; and ordered him report to the Army camp the following day. The applicant was terrified and did not go to the camp but went into hiding; then to avoid arrest, he went to [name a second town], where he stayed for 3-4 months. When he returned home the Army were not in [name of village] - because of the lapse of time. c. Another problem he had not previously mentioned was that he assaulted a Sinhalese who pushed his mother over an argument about the applicant's use of a hosepipe at a temple in the village. Two hours after he and his mother went home, the police and army jeeps surrounded their house. The applicant was not at home when the army came 3 or 4 times but observed the army looking for him from another house. The soldiers who had previously interrogated him at gunpoint were also there. If he had been caught that day, it would have been the end of his life. … i. The Army base to which he was told to report was close to the hospital and if he had gone there the following day, they would have harmed him. The Tribunal expressed doubt that, if the soldiers were seriously concerned about his behaviour, they would have released him and told him to report the following day, allowing him to run away. The applicant replied that the soldiers were drunk and could not interrogate him properly so he assumed they wanted to interrogate him with clear minds. j. The incident in which he assaulted the Sinhalese man occurred 6-7 months later, after he returned to [name of village] in 2011. He left [name of village] for Australia … 10 days later on 26 May 2012. Before that, he was in hiding. … l. The applicant fears that he returns to Sri Lanka he will have problems with the authorities, including the CID, because of the incident in which he assaulted the Sinhalese man in defence of his mother. He confirmed several times that this was the only reason he feared harm; the only problem he had; that he had not been involved in any other assaults or issues; and that he did not have any other adverse records. m. Asked several times what he feared would happen to him, the applicant said if he was sent back, the authorities would review all his past records, find out about the assault incident, conduct an interview and pass the case to the CID; and when he came before the CID, 'anything could happen to him'. Because he was a Tamil, when the authorities went through his records it would be easy for them. The man whom he assaulted might also persecute him. n. At the request of the applicant's advisor at the end of the hearing, the Tribunal asked the applicant again if there was anything else he feared might happen to him if he were to return to Sri Lanka. The applicant responded that his first problem was the assault and his second problem was that he failed to report to the Army camp when told to do so. If he went back, the authorities would get all his records and it 'would be the end of [his] life'. …