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Bellal Hossain v Torture Claims Appeal Board / Non-refoulement Claims Petition Office And Another [Decision On Leave Application]

Judgment Cited authorities 4 Cited in 1 Precedent Map Related
Vincent
Judgment Date31 August 2018
Neutral Citation[2018] HKCFI 1957
Year2018
Judgement NumberHCAL994/2017
Subject MatterConstitutional and Administrative Law Proceedings
CourtCourt of First Instance (Hong Kong)
HCAL994/2017 BELLAL HOSSAIN v. TORTURE CLAIMS APPEAL BOARD / NON-REFOULEMENT CLAIMS PETITION OFFICE AND ANOTHER

HCAL 994/2017

[2018] HKCFI 1957

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CONSTITUTIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LAW LIST No. 994 of 2017

BETWEEN

Bellal Hossain Applicant
and
Torture Claims Appeal Board /
Non-Refoulement Claims Petition Office		 1st Putative Respondent
Director of Immigration 2nd Putative Respondent

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 by the Applicant being absent;

Order by Deputy High Court Judge Bruno Chan:

Leave to apply for judicial review refused.

Observations for the Applicant:

1. The applicant is a 31-year-old national of Bangladesh who entered Hong Kong illegally on 11 April 2015 and was arrested by police on 13 April 2015. After being referred to the Immigration Department for investigation, he lodged a non-refoulement claim on the basis that if he returned to Bangladesh he would be harmed or killed by certain members of rival political party Awami League (“AL”) and by the local police over false charges against him. He has subsequently been released on recognizance pending the determination of his claim.

2. The applicant was born and raised in Village Raipur, District Lakshmipur, Bangladesh. In 2011 when he was a student in Comilla Victoria College, he joined the Islami Chhatra Shibir (“ICS”) which was the student wing of the political party Jamaat-e-Islami (“JeL”), and actively attended their meetings and rallies and assisted in their election campaigns.

3. However, the majority of the students were supporters of AL, and RS, the vice president of its student wing who attended the same college would often harass and intimidate fellow students of other political parties to join AL, and one day in early 2013 he approached the applicant and demanded that he quit JeL to join AL, and when the applicant refused, RS became angry and threatened him with dire consequences.

4. One day in about mid-2013 while the applicant was on his way to school, he ran into RS with two other AL members, and when the applicant again rejected his demand to join AL, RS ordered his friends to hit the applicant who was however able to hit back at one of them with a brick and made his escape.

5. On the same evening some policemen came to the applicant’s house and took him back to the station where he was detained overnight on a false charge made against him by RS during which he was hit by a police officer with a baton and was denied any food or water, and it was only in the following morning when his parents paid a bribe to the police officer that the applicant was released.

6. Two days later the police again came to the applicant’s home looking for him on another charge laid against him by RS, but the applicant was able to slip away to hide in his neighbour’s home, and from there he fled to Dhaka to take shelter at his uncle’s place where he stayed for about six months without any incidents, but when he was informed by his parents that the police were still looking for him everywhere, the applicant felt it was no longer safe to remain in Bangladesh, and therefore on 15 December 2013 departed for China where he stayed for one and a half year before sneaking into Hong Kong in April 2015 and lodged his non-refoulement claim, for which he completed a Non-refoulement Claim Form (“NCF”) on 4 July 2017 and attended screening interview before the Immigration Department with legal representation from the Duty Lawyer Service.

7. By a Notice of Decision dated 28 July 2017 the Director of Immigration (“the Director”) rejected the applicant’s claim on all applicable grounds including risk of torture under Part VIIC of the Immigration Ordinance, Cap 115 (“torture risk”), risk of his absolute and non-derogable rights under the Hong Kong Bill of Rights (“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”).

8. In his decision the Director found no substantial grounds for believing that there will be real risk of the applicant being harmed or killed by RS or other AL people or that he would be arrested or persecuted by the police upon his return to Bangladesh due to the low intensity and frequency of past ill-treatment from any of them, that reliable and objective Country of Origin Information (“COI”) show that structured police forces are in place in Bangladesh with on-going reforms that even members of the ruling party are not immune from the rule of law, that the absence of reliable evidence of any official involvement in the threats from RS and his AL people that state protection would be available to the applicant if resorted to, and that COI show that reasonable...

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1 cases
  • Re Bellal Hossain
    • Hong Kong
    • Court of Appeal (Hong Kong)
    • February 26, 2019
    ...the applicant leave for judicial review. Background 2. The background facts are sufficiently set out by the Judge in the CALL-1 Form at [2018] HKCFI 1957. We shall not repeat the same 3. Briefly stated, the applicant is a national of Bangladesh. He entered Hong Kong illegally on 11 April 20......

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