Case: SZIIZ v Minister for Immigration &amp; Multicultural Affairs &amp; Anor [2006] FMCA 939
Outcome: affirmed
is an appeal from the decision of Scarlett FM made on 16 June 2006 ( SZIIZ v Minister for Immigration &amp; Multicultural Affairs &amp; Anor [2006] FMCA 939) dismissing an application for judicial review of a decision of the Refugee Review Tribunal to refuse the appellant a protection visa. The appellant is a national of Pakistan who is a Shia Muslim claiming a well-founded fear of persecution in that country by reason of his association with a group known as the TNFJ. After the refusal of his application by a delegate of the Minister, the appellant lodged an application with the Refugee Review Tribunal. On 21 November 2005, the Tribunal advised the appellant that as it was unable to make a decision in his favour on the information before it, he was invited to an oral hearing. The appellant signed a Response to Hearing Invitation form indicating he did not wish to attend the hearing. Consequently, no hearing was conducted and the Tribunal affirmed the decision of the delegate. Naturally, an important aspect of that finding was the fact that the appellant had not attended the hearing in order to supplement the information which the Tribunal had before it. The appellant then filed an application in the Federal Magistrates Court seeking relief in the nature of prerogative relief to set aside the Tribunal's decision. Scarlett FM affirmed the decision of the Tribunal on 16 June 2006 and it is from that judgment that this appeal is brought. The grounds of appeal are as follows: '... I was born on 06/12/1976 in the city of Mian Channu in district Khanewal of Punjab province Pakistan. I hail from a religious family and we have all the affiliations with Tehrik Nafaed Faqia Jafaria (TNFJ) mian channu district. My father is a head of the Mian Channu TNFJ committee of the TNFJ within the district of Khanewal. As I am a born Shia Muslim and very soon I was a front line worker and preacher of the shia faith within the TNFJ. SSP is also a very strong in our area and they are very strong hardliner militant people and they use to create disturbance in our meeting many times. The SSP workers in Khanewal kidnapped me in the month of February. I was blindfolded and was taken to a place far away from Khanewal city. It was almost a jungle. They took me to a house where I saw the armed men and there the SSP people mercilessly beat me. I need protection for my life because my family in Pakistan facing high level of mental and physical torture I the upcoming hearing I will provide death certificate of my cousin who was killed by the SSP. After that shocking death of my cousin the SSP lodged an police report (FIR) against my brother. This is a vital proof of religious heated Sunni society. I am going through a great level of stress; my family members are hiding because of fear of Sunni hardliners approach. As a Shia Muslim I need a protection visa.' The grounds do not identify or isolate any error in the judgment of the learned Federal Magistrate and identify no ground of appeal in a conventional sense at all. The appellant's written submissions do not fill that gap but expand further upon the factual bases for the claim to a protection visa and, as with his oral submissions, seek to invite this Court to consider fresh material as, indeed, the appellant had also invited the learned Federal Magistrate to consider fresh material.