Agaba Haruna v. The Torture Claims Appeal Board / Non-refoulement Claims Petition Office

HCAL 1537/2020

[2025] HKCFI 5171

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CONSTITUTIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LAW LIST NO 1537 OF 2020

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;

Order by Deputy High Court Judge (Non-Refoulement Claims) Vincent Lung:

1.  Form 86 be amended, naming the Torture Claims Appeal Board / Non‑refoulement Claims Petition Office as the Putative Respondent and only the Director of Immigration be named as the Putative Interested Party.

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

Observations for the Applicant:

Introduction

1.By a Form 86 filed on 22 July 2020 (the “Form 86”), the Applicant applied for leave to apply for judicial review against the decision by the Torture Claims Appeal Board (the “TCAB”) dated 9 July 2020 (the “TCAB Decision”), which affirmed the decision of the Director of Immigration (the “DOI”) dated 9 May 2018. I note that the Form 86 incorrectly referred to the DOI’s decision instead of the TCAB Decision as the subject matter of proposed judicial review.

2.I amend the Form 86 on my own motion to name the TCAB as the putative respondent and only the DOI as the putative interested party.

3.The Applicant requested for a hearing of this application and he attended the same.

Background

4.The Applicant is a national of Uganda. He seeks non-refoulement protection on the basis that his life would be in danger if he is to go back. In brief terms, the Applicant was forced by one Joyce to undergo drugs trafficking into Hong Kong in 2008. The Applicant was intercepted by the airport customs but Joyce was not; she eventually went back to Uganda and bribed the police after the Applicant’s (then) wife made a report. Since then the Applicant’s wife and family were harassed by Joyce and her followers. The wife then re-married another man who was affiliated with the army. The Applicant is worried that if he is to return, he would be harmed by Joyce or the wife’s re-married husband (he asserted that it was natural in Uganda that an ex-husband would be in a dangerous position). The Applicant’s personal background, the relevant facts and relevant procedural history have been sufficiently set out in the TCAB Decision, which can be viewed through a hyperlink[1]. I shall therefore not repeat them.

Discussion

5.The leave application operates as a filtering process and there is no requirement or expectation to give elaborate reasons for my decision: Re Zunariyah [2018] HKCA 14 at [23]. It is sufficient to state my observations after considering the TCAB Decision and the materials adduced by the Applicant.

6.I remind myself that in a judicial review, this court does not provide a further avenue of appeal. Though in non-refoulement cases an enhanced standard in scrutinizing the decision of the TCAB is required given the seriousness of the issue at hand, this court should not usurp the role of the TCAB, which together with the DOI are the primary decision-makers. A finding of fact is exclusively within the realm of the TCAB, and this court will not intervene by way of judicial review unless there are errors of law or procedural unfairness or irrationality in the decision of the TCAB: Nupur Mst v Director of Immigration [2018] HKCA 524 at [14(1)]. There must be a reasonably arguable case with a realistic prospect of success before leave for judicial review will be granted: Peter Po Fun Chan v Winnie Cheung (2007) 10 HKCFAR 676.

7.In a proper Form 86, an applicant is required to identify the grounds of judicial review clearly and succinctly: Ho Loy v Director of Environmental Protection (unreported, HCAL 21/2015, 22 December 2016) at [142], and further to make full and frank disclosure of all material facts to be verified by an affidavit.

8.The Applicant did not point to any error of law, procedural unfairness or irrationality of the TCAB Decision in the Form 86. He merely stated in his affirmation that the danger was still continuing. He repeated the same point before me at the hearing.

9.As can be seen from the TCAB Decision, the TCAB took into account all the evidence available [1-37] and found that on the basis of the same, applying also the correct legal principles in respect of all four applicable grounds [38-42, 58-60, 63, 65‑70] and considering Country of Origin information [54, 75-76], the Applicant’s allegations were insufficient to make out any of the applicable grounds [43-46, 47-57, 61-62, 64, 71-73]. Specifically, the TCAB found the Applicant’s evidence to be incredible and hence there was no factual foundation for his non-refoulement claim [43-46]. These were conclusions that the TCAB was fully entitled to reach.

10.Further, the TCAB also concluded that state protection and internal relocation were available on the basis of the available evidence [55, 74-77].

11.All in all, I do not see any errors of law, procedural unfairness or irrationality in the TCAB Decision, despite rigorous examination and anxious scrutiny. The Applicant’s intended challenge to the TCAB Decision is not reasonably arguable, and accordingly the application for leave to apply for judicial review is dismissed.

Dated the 7^th day of November 2025

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