Rina Nurbayani Alias Rina-nurbayani Alias Nurbayani Rina v. Torture Claims Appeal Board

HCAL 1066/2023

[2024] HKCFI 3602

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CONSTITUTIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LAW LIST NO. 1066 OF 2023

Application for Leave to Apply for Judicial Review
NOTIFICATION of the Judge’s decision (Ord. 53 r. 3)

Following:

	consideration of the documents only;            or
	consideration of the documents and oral submissions by the Applicant in open court / the Applicant being absent in open court;

Order by Deputy High Court Judge Bruno Chan:

The application for leave to apply for judicial review be dismissed.

Observations for the Applicant:

1.The Applicant is a 41-year-old national of Indonesia who last arrived in Hong Kong on 20 April 2012 with permission to continue to work as a foreign domestic helper until the expiration of her employment contract or within 14 days of its early termination, but when her last employment was prematurely terminated on 27 April 2012, she did not depart and instead overstayed, and was arrested more than 9 years later on 11 October 2021 for which she was subsequently convicted and sentenced to prison for 12 months, during which she raised a non-refoulement claim for protection to the Immigration Department on the basis that if she returned to Indonesia she would be harmed or killed by her stepfather or his creditor for failing to send money to repay his debts.

2.The Applicant was born and raised in Village Majalay, District Cikalong Kulon, Cianjur City, Indonesia where she was raised by her mother and stepfather after her parents divorced when she was only 2 years old, and during her growing up she was frequently abused by her stepfather whenever he lost his temper and hit her.

3.In 2004 she started working in Bandung as a domestic helper so as to remit money to her stepfather to enable him to repay his many gambling debts, and in 2006 she started coming to Hong Kong to work as a foreign domestic helper and to continue to remit money to her stepfather in Indonesia.

4.However, after her last employment was prematurely terminated in April 2012, and when she was without income to remit money to her stepfather in Indonesia, and after she was warned by her mother not to return to Indonesia as her stepfather had threatened to kill her, the Applicant therefore overstayed in Hong Kong, and upon her subsequent arrest more than 9 years later in 2021, she then raised her non-refoulement claim for protection, for which she completed a Non-refoulement Claim Form (“NCF”) on 13 April 2022 and attended screening interview before the Immigration Department with legal representation from the Duty Lawyer Service (“DLS”).

5.By a Notice of Decision dated 20 May 2022 the Director of Immigration (“Director”) rejected the Applicant’s claim on all the applicable grounds including risk of torture under Part VIIC of the Immigration Ordinance, Cap. 115 (“Torture Risk”), risk of her absolute or non-derogable rights under the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance, Cap. 383 (“HKBOR”) being violated including right to life under Article 2 (“BOR 2 Risk”), risk of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under Article 3 of HKBOR (“BOR 3 Risk”), and risk of persecution with reference to the non-refoulement principle under Article 33 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (“Persecution Risk”).

6.In his decision the Director took into account of all the relevant circumstances of the Applicant’s claim and assessed the level of risk of harm from her stepfather or his creditor upon her return to Indonesia as low due to the low intensity and frequency of past ill-treatment from them, that there is no evidence of any real intention of either of them to seriously harm or kill her other than to press her to repay her stepfather’s debts, that in any event it was a private monetary dispute between her stepfather and his creditor only without any official involvement that state or police protection would be available to the Applicant if resorted to, and that reliable and objective Country of Origin Information (“COI”) show that reasonable internal relocation alternatives are available in Indonesia with a large population of 275 million people spread across a vast territory of more than 1.9 million square kilometers that it would not be unduly harsh for the Applicant as an able-bodied adult with working experience to move to other areas of the country away from her home district in large cities where it would be difficult if not impossible for her stepfather or his creditor to locate her.

7.On 9 June 2022 the Applicant lodged an appeal to the Torture Claims Appeal Board (“Board”) against the Director’s decision, and for which she attended an oral hearing on 14 September 2022 before the Board during which she gave evidence and answered questions raised of her claim by the Adjudicator for the Board. On 30 March 2023 her appeal was dismissed by the Board which also confirmed the Director’s decision.

8.In its decision the Board found material inconsistencies and discrepancies in the Applicant’s evidence that it doubted the credibility of her claim of fear of harm from her stepfather or his creditor that caused her to overstay in Hong Kong to seek protection, that there was no reliable evidence of any real intention of either of them to seriously harm or kill her other than to press her for money to repay her stepfather’s debts, that since her last saw her stepfather in 2012 and thereafter without any further contact between them that it is not accepted that her stepfather or his creditor would still have any adverse interest in her after all these years, and that in any event it was a private family dispute between her and her stepfather only without any official involvement that state or police protection would be available to the Applicant upon her return to Indonesia as well as reasonable internal relocation alternatives for her to move safely to other parts of the country away from her home district without any risk of being located by her stepfather or his creditor that her claim for non-refoulement protection failed on all applicable grounds.

9.On 30 June 2023 the Applicant filed her Form 86 for leave to apply for judicial review of the Board’s decision, but no ground for seeking relief was given in her Form or her supporting affirmation of the same date in which she just repeated her claim of fear of harm from her stepfather as before but without putting forth any proper ground for her intended challenge. As such, and in the absence of any error of law or irrationality or procedural unfairness in her process before the Board or in its decision being clearly and properly identified by the Applicant, I do not find any reasonably arguable basis for her intended challenge of the Board’s decision.

10.As has been repeatedly emphasized by the Court of Appeal, judicial review does not operate as a rehearing of a non-refoulement claim when the proper occasion for the Applicant to present and articulate his claim is in the screening process and interview before the Immigration Department and in the process before the Board where the evaluation of the risk of harm is primarily a matter for the Director and the Board as they are entitled to make such evaluation based on the evidence available to them that the court will not usurp their role as primary decision makers in the absence of any legal error or procedural unfairness or irrationality in their decisions being clearly and properly identified by the Applicant, as judicial review is not an avenue for revisiting the assessment by them in the hope that the court may consider the matter afresh: Re Lakhwinder Singh [2018] HKCA 246; Re Daljit Singh [2018] HKCA 328; Re Mudannayakalage Chaminda Pushpa Kumara [2018] HKCA 400; and Nupur Mst v Director of Immigration [2018] HKCA 524.

11.In the Applicant’s case, the fact is that it has been established by both the Director and the Board in their respective decisions that the risk of harm in her claim even if real is a localized one and that it is not unreasonable or unsafe for her to relocate to other part of Indonesia, there is simply no justification to afford her with non-refoulement protection in Hong Kong: see TK v Jenkins & Anor [2013] 1 HKC 526.

12.Having considered the decisions of both the Director and the Board with rigorous examination and anxious scrutiny, I do not find any error of law or procedural unfairness in either of them, nor any failure on their part to apply high standards of fairness in their consideration and assessment of the Applicant’s claim.

13.Moreover, the Applicant recently on 7 October 2024 in writing requested to withdraw her application as it is now safe for her to return to her home country.

14.In the premises, as I am for the given reasons not satisfied that there is any prospect of success in the Applicant’s intended application for judicial review, and in view of her latest confirmation that it is safe for her to return to her home country, I accordingly dismiss her leave application.

Dated the 24^th day of December 2024

Where leave to apply has been granted, Applicants and their legal advisers are reminded of their obligation to reconsider the merits of their application in the light of the Respondent’s evidence

Form CALL-1