CAT/C/52/D/455/2011
Facts as submitted by the complainant
2.1
The complainant was born in Fuqing in Fujian Province, China, on 8 October 1978.
In January 2005 she started practicing Tien Tao religion after being introduction to it
through a friend, J.P.H.
2.2
The complainant was approached by the police in February 2005 and questioned
about her activities with Tien Tao. She was taken into police custody and at the police
station she was beaten and asked to help the police arrest other members of the
organization. As a result of the beating she suffered an injury to her left index finger, which
was crushed.2 She was released from police custody the following day. The complainant
received medical treatment for her injury at 73301 Hospital in Fuqing.
2.3
In the days following the incident, the complainant was contacted by the police and
requested to provide information about members of Tien Tao, including J.P.H. She was also
forced to contact J.P.H. In April 2005, she fled to Chongqing, Bishang County, and hid at a
friend’s place. The police visited her family in Fujian on several occasions with a warrant
for her arrest. Her family subsequently purchased a passport with a fake identity for her to
leave China. She arrived in Australia on 19 April 2005 on a valid tourist visa.
2.4
Fearing that she and her family would be persecuted by the Chinese authorities if
she returned to China, the complainant filed an application with the Australian Department
of Immigration and Citizenship (Immigration Department) for a protection visa on 27 May
2005, using the same fake identity and claiming that she was a Falun Gong practitioner, as
advised by the migration agent. On 18 August 2005, her application was refused. On 12
September 2005, she applied for review to the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT), which
upheld the refusal decision on 11 January 2006. The RRT decided that it could not verify
her identity nor that she was a Tien Tao practitioner in China before her arrival in Australia.
The complainant claims that due to the misguiding advice of the migration agent, she lost
an opportunity to genuinely present her claims to the Australian authorities.
2.5
Her application for a judicial review by the Federal Magistrate Court as well as her
appeal to the Federal Court were dismissed on 30 August 2006 and 23 February 2007,
respectively. On 27 December 2007 and 30 November 2009, the complainant applied to the
Minister for Migration to intervene; both applications were deemed not to meet the
guidelines and were not referred to the Minister for consideration. The complainant claims
that she has exhausted all domestic remedies.
2.6
The complainant joined a Tien Tao community in Sydney in August 2005 and
claims to have been a regular practitioner since. There she met L.D.Z., who is the Master of
the Tien Tao temple she attends. L.D.Z. visited the complainant’s children during her trip to
China in 2011, at the request of the complainant. L.D.Z. was subsequently stopped,
harassed and threatened by the Chinese police, who questioned her about her relationship
with the complainant.
The complaint
3.1
The complainant claims that her forcible deportation to China would amount to a
violation of article 3 of the Convention as she fears being tortured by the Chinese
authorities because of her continued involvement with the Tien Tao religion..
2
The medical report describes the injury and the treatment recommended and states the following:
“The patient was arrested by police when she attended a meeting. The police officer beat her with an
electric baton, causing skin lacerations in the ending section of the index finger of the left hand and
nail loss. The finger is bleeding and swollen, and cannot function normally”.
3