Aslam v Minister for Immigration & Multicultural Affairs [2000] FCA 746

FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Aslam v Minister for Immigration & Multicultural Affairs [2000] FCA 746 WASEEM ASLAM v MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS N 406 OF 2000 DRUMMOND, MADGWICK AND EMMETT JJ 2 JUNE 2000 SYDNEY

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

NEW SOUTH WALES DISTRICT REGISTRY N 406 OF 2000

ON APPEAL FROM A JUDGE OF THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

BETWEEN: WASEEM ASLAM

APPELLANT

AND: MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS

RESPONDENT

JUDGES: DRUMMOND, MADGWICK AND EMMETT JJ

DATE OF ORDER: 2 JUNE 2000

WHERE MADE: SYDNEY

THE COURT ORDERS THAT:

1. The appeal be dismissed.

2. The appellant pay the respondent's costs of and incidental to the appeal.

Note: Settlement and entry of orders is dealt with in Order 36 of the Federal Court Rules.

IN THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

NEW SOUTH WALES DISTRICT REGISTRY N 406 OF 2000

ON APPEAL FROM A JUDGE OF THE FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

BETWEEN: WASEEM ASLAM

APPELLANT

AND: MINISTER FOR IMMIGRATION AND MULTICULTURAL AFFAIRS

RESPONDENT

JUDGES: DRUMMOND, MADGWICK AND EMMETT JJ

DATE: 2 JUNE 2000

PLACE: SYDNEY

REASONS FOR JUDGMENT

1 DRUMMOND J: This is an appeal from a judge of the Court who dismissed an application to review a decision of the Refugee Review Tribunal ("the Tribunal") which refused to grant the appellant a protection visa. The appeal is brought before this Court on the ground that the learned primary judge erred in finding that the Tribunal was not biased and had not been able to make accurate findings in rejecting his appeal in respect of the Tribunal's decision. 2 The appellant is a citizen of Pakistan. He applied for a protection visa only after he was placed in immigration detention nearly two years after his arrival in Australia on a student visa. The basis for his claim to the protection visa is that he is a Sunni Muslim, that he and his family lived in a suburb in his city of residence in Pakistan which was largely Shiite and that he and various of his family members have suffered various degrees of harm at the hands of his Shiite neighbours. 3 The learned primary judge said of the Tribunal's detailed reasons reviewing the appellant's evidence to it and the extensive country information available to the Tribunal about religious dissension in Pakistan this: