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| Judicial review applications are always lodged with the High Court |
A Filipina former domestic worker who overstayed her visa in Hong Kong in 2019, then proceeded to file a claim for non-refoulement on the basis of torture, has given up her application to remain in the city, saying she was no longer in harm’s way.
Accordingly, High Court Judge Bruno Chan handed down a decision yesterday, July 24, dismissing her
application for a judicial review of the order denying her bid to remain in the
city.
J.M., 35 years old, had sought asylum status in Hong Kong in May, 2022 after surrendering for overstaying her visa for three years. She claimed that her husband in the Philippines would harm her after learning of her long-running affair with another man in Hong Kong.
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| Basahin ang detalye! |
J.M, who is married and has three children with her
husband in Batangas, said it was her lover who told her husband about their
affair after she jilted him for abusing her.
After learning about the affair, JM's husband
allegedly called her up and threatened to kill her if she returned to the
Philippines. That was the reason she decided to surrender to Immigration and
raised her non-refoulement claim, said the Filipina.
But on Aug. 31, 2022 the Director of Immigration ruled that
there was no evidence of any real intention on the part of her husband to
seriously harm or kill JM, but only uttered angry words and empty
threats.
In addition, the Director said there was no record of any
past ill-treatments from the husband, and in any event, it was a private
domestic dispute between the two of them, and did not involve the state or the
authorities.
If she decided to go back home, she could easily move far
from her husband as the Philippines has a vast territory, with a functioning
security and judicial system.
The applicant appealed the decision to the Torture Claims
Adjudication Board (TCAB) but this was also dismissed on July 12, 2023.
On Aug 21 of the same year, J.M. filed an application
for leave for a judicial review of the Director and TCAB’s decisions copies of
which she attached, but without citing any grounds.
“As such, and in the absence of any error of law
or irrationality or procedural unfairness in her process before the Board or in
its decision being clearly and properly identified by the Applicant, I do not
find any reasonably arguable basis for her intended challenge,” said Judge Chan.
The judge then noted that J.M. had written to the court
on Apr 11 this year, requesting that her application for leave be canceled,
saying it was now safe for her to return to the Philippines.
Given that he found no reasonable prospect of success for
the applicant’s intended application for judicial review and her own confirmation
that she could now safely return home, the judge dismissed the case.
