Case Document

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HCAL 565/2024

[2026] HKCFI 5421

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CONSTITUTIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LAW LIST NO 565 OF 2024

BETWEEN

	Tran Ngo Hoang	Applicant
	and
	Torture Claims Appeal Board	Putative Respondent
	and
	Director of Immigration	Putative Interested Party

Application for leave to apply for judicial review

NOTIFICATION of the Judge’s decision (Order 53, rule 3)

Following:

consideration of the documents only; or

consideration of the documents and oral submissions by the applicant or counsel in open court;

Order by Deputy High Court Judge Michael WONG:

1. On this court’s own motion, the name of the putative respondent be amended to “Torture Claims Appeal Board”, and “Director of Immigration” be added as the putative interested party.

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

Observations for the applicant:

The Leave Application

1.By way of Form 86 dated and filed on 8 April 2024, the applicant applied for leave to apply for judicial review (“the Leave Application”) in respect of the decision of the Torture Claims Appeal Board (“the Board”) dated 7 March 2024 (“the Board’s Decision”). The Board’s Decision can be viewed in the following hyperlink:-

https://legalref.judiciary.hk/doc/judg/html/vetted/other/en/2024/HCAL000565_2024_files/the_Board's_Decision.pdf

2.The Board found that the applicant had failed to demonstrate that he was entitled to non-refoulement protection in Hong Kong on any of the applicable grounds under the Unified Screening Mechanism (“the USM”). Accordingly, the Board dismissed his appeal/petition against decision of the Director of Immigration (“the Director”) dated 29 November 2023 (“the Director’s Decision”) and confirmed the same, which rejected the applicant’s non-refoulement claim.

Amendments

3.In Form 86, the applicant named “thE TO RTURE CLAiMS APPEAL BOARD DIRETOR OF IMMi GRATiON” as the putative respondent and did not name any putative interested party.

4.In fact, only the Board should be named as the putative respondent, and the Director should be named as the putative interested party.

5.This court therefore makes an order on its own motion to amend the name of the putative respondent to “Torture Claims Appeal Board”, and to add “Director of Immigration” as the putative interested party.

The applicant’s case

6.It is not necessary for this court to repeat the details of the applicant’s case here as the same were set out in the Board’s Decision, which can be viewed in the hyperlink above.

7.In sum, the applicant claimed for non-refoulement protection because if refouled to Vietnam, he would be harmed or killed by a moneylender named Vu Xuan Tuan (“the moneylender”), as he was unable to repay a loan of 1,000 million Vietnamese Dong to the moneylender.

Disposal on paper

8.The applicant did not request for an oral hearing of the Leave Application. This court is also satisfied that the Leave Application can be disposed of based on the written materials before this court. Hence, the Leave Application is dealt with on paper.

Grounds for judicial review

9.The applicant is required to identify clearly the grounds for the intended judicial review (see Ho Loy & Another v Director of Environmental Protection, HCAL 21 of 2015, dated 22.12.2016).

10.The applicant did not advance any ground for his intended judicial review in Form 86, nor in his supporting affirmation dated 8 April 2024.

11.In the said affirmation, the applicant merely stated that he was applying for judicial review against the decision of the Director.

Discussion

12.First of all, only the Board’s Decision is reviewable by judicial process and not the Director’s Decision. There are established statutory procedures of appeal from the Director to the Board and the applicant had invoked those procedures. The Director’s Decision was superseded by the Board’s Decision and is no longer susceptible to judicial review (see Re Moshsin Ali [2018] HKCA 549). This court will therefore deal with the Leave Application in respect of the Board’s Decision only.

13.The role of the court in judicial review is not to re-assess the non-refoulement claims afresh. The primary decision-makers in a claim for non-refoulement are the Director and the Board. They alone assess the evidence and find facts including those relating to the matters allegedly giving rise to the non-refoulement claim, risk of harm, availability of state protection and viability of internal relocation. The court will scrutinize the Board’s decision and intervene by way of judicial review only for errors of law, procedural unfairness, or irrationality (see Nupur Mst v Director of Immigration [2018] HKCA 524).

14.Thus, despite the fact that the applicant failed to advance any valid ground for the intended judicial review, this court will scrutinize the Board’s Decision for any errors of law, procedural unfairness, or irrationality as aforesaid.

15.In assessing the appeal/petition by the applicant, the Board held an oral hearing on 5 February 2024. The applicant was present and was thus given the chance to present his case to the Board in person.

16.As can be seen from the Board’s Decision, the Board gave full and detailed reasoning in rejecting the applicant’s claims. Its detailed consideration of the applicant’s claims was laid out in paragraphs 52 to 135 of the Board’s Decision, and it is not necessary to repeat the same here.

17.In gist, the Board found that there were numerous material inconsistencies and implausibility in the applicant’s core account. The discrepancies and implausibility were fatal and the centerpiece of his story could not stand. The Board found that the applicant was not a credible witness. The Board found that the applicant’s claim relating to his borrowing money for his business was entirely lacking in even the most basic levels of coherence, detail or fundamental credibility. The Board had no doubt that this aspect of the claim was simply a fabrication and that no credence whatsoever could be given to it.

18.Despite its findings as summarised above, the Board went on to assess the applicant’s risks on all the applicable grounds under the USM. The Board found that even on the applicant’s account, the moneylender was acting in his personal and private capacity. There was no evidence of state acquiescence in the alleged ill-treatment of the applicant. The applicant’s dispute with the moneylender was purely a private and personal dispute and had nothing to do with any of the Convention reasons. The Board did not accept that there were ill-treatments from the moneylender.

19.Moreover, the Board considered extensive country of origin information (“COI”) to assess the availability of state protection to the applicant in paragraphs 143 to 149 of the Board’s Decision. The Board considered that despite setbacks, the Vietnamese government was able and willing to provide reasonable protection. The applicant had not discharged his onus why he could not obtain and seek state protection.

20.Furthermore, the Board had explored the viability of internal relocation for the applicant as a matter of caution and had given full reasons in paragraphs 175 to 184 of the Board’s Decision for its conclusion that it would not be unduly harsh or unreasonable for the applicant to relocate internally to a place of his choice in Vietnam to lower or negate any perceived risk of ill-treatment from the moneylender.

21.Thus, the Board concluded that the applicant’s claim for non-refoulement protection failed on all the applicable grounds under the USM.

22.The finding of facts relating to a non-refoulement claim, including the assessment of evidence, COI and risk of harm, was solely within the ambit of the Board in dealing with the applicant’s appeal/petition. This court finds nothing wrong or unreasonable in the way the Board reached its decision.

23.Having rigorously examined the Board’s Decision and the evidence with anxious scrutiny, this court is satisfied that the Board had correctly set out the law and key legal principles relating to the applicable grounds under the USM, the burden of proof and the standard of proof. The Board also correctly identified the issues and observed a very high standard of fairness. This court could detect no errors of law, procedural unfairness or irrationality in the Board’s Decision. The Board’s Decision does satisfy the enhanced Wednesbury test, ie it is not Wednesbury unreasonable or irrational for the Board to reach its decision.

24.As held by the Court of Final Appeal in Po Fun Chan v Winnie Cheung (2007) 10 HKCFAR 676, for the court to grant leave to apply for judicial review, the claim has to be a reasonably arguable claim which enjoys realistic prospects of success. It is the view of this court that the applicant has failed to establish such a claim and hence leave must be refused.

Conclusion

25.For reasons aforesaid, the Leave Application is dismissed.

Dated the 23^rd day of September 2026

( Gladys LEE )
for Registrar, High Court

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

Notes for the applicant: If leave has been granted, the applicant or his solicitors must:
a) serve on the respondent and such interested parties as may be directed by the Court the order granting leave and any directions given within 14 days after the leave was granted (Order 53, rule 4A); b) issue the originating summons within 14 days after the grant of leave and serve it in accordance with Order 53, rule 5; and c) supply to every other party copies of every affidavit which the Applicant proposes to use at the hearing, including the affidavit in support of the application for leave (Order 53, rule 6(5)).		Sent/Handed to the applicant/the applicant’s solicitors on: 23/09/2026 Applicant’s ref. no: Nil		Sent/Handed to the putative respondent / the putative respondent’s solicitors / such putative interested parties as may be directed by the Court / the putative interested parties’ solicitors on: 23/09/2026 Torture Claims Appeal Board/Non-refoulement Claims Petition Office Putative respondent’s ref. no.: USM 22572 Director of Immigration Putative interested party’s ref. no.: QA T/C 1128/23 (formerly RBCZ 5001040/23) Department of Justice, Senior Assistant Law Officer (Civil Law) (Civil Litigation Unit 2)