Dolgitskaya v The Minister for Immigration & Multicultural Affairs [1998] FCA 177

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA MIGRATION - Refugee Review Tribunal - application for protection visa - whether there was evidence to justify making of decisions - whether Tribunal decision involved errors of law - whether hearing before Tribunal conducted in unfair manner - application dismissed. Migration Act 1958, ss 420, 476(1)(a), 476(1)(e), 476(1)(g) Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs v Guo (1997) 144 ALR 567, applied Eshutu v Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (1997) 71 FCR 300, applied GALINA DOLGITSKAYA v THE MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS SG 29 of 1996 MANSFIELD J ADELAIDE 6 MARCH 1998

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

SOUTH AUSTRALIA DISTRICT REGISTRY SG 29 of 1996

BETWEEN: galina dolgitskaya

Applicant

AND: the minister for immigration and multicultural affairs

Respondent

JUDGE: MANSFIELD J

DATE OF ORDER: 6 March 1998

WHERE MADE: ADELAIDE

THE COURT ORDERS THAT: (1) Application dismissed. (2) The applicant pay to the respondent costs of the application to be taxed. Note: Settlement and entry of orders is dealt with in Order 36 of the Federal Court Rules.

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

SOUTH AUSTRALIA DISTRICT REGISTRY SG 29 of 1996

BETWEEN: galina dolgitskaya

Applicant

AND: the minister for immigration and multicultural affairs

Respondent

JUDGE: MANSFIELD J

DATE: 6 March 1998

PLACE: ADELAIDE

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

The applicant seeks review of the decision of the Refugee Review Tribunal ("the Tribunal") made on 29 February 1996. The Tribunal affirmed a decision of the delegate of the Minister of 27 June 1995 that she is not entitled to a protection visa under s 36 of the Migration Act 1958 ("the Act"). The applicant is a national of the Russian Federation. She is from the town of Il'skij on the outskirts of Krasnodar, near Chechyna. She arrived in Australia in December 1994 on a visitor visa with her young son Antuan, who is included in the application for the protection visa which she made in January 1995. Her occupation is a philologist of French language, although she had earlier worked as a school teacher and as a deputy school principal. Section 36(2) of the Act provides that a criterion for a protection visa is that the applicant for the visa is a non citizen in Australia to whom Australia has protection obligations under the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees done at Geneva on 28 July 1951 as amended by the Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees done at New York on 31 January 1967 ("the Convention"). It is common ground on this application that the relevant provision of the Convention is Article 1 A(2) which provides that a refugee is any person who: "... owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country; ..."