CAT/C/52/D/455/2011
3.2
The complainant also claims that the danger for Tien Tao practitioners in China is
serious. To that end, she attached to her submission an RRT Research Response, dated
19 October 2007, concerning the situation and treatment of Tien Tao practitioners in China,
particularly in Fujian.
State party’s observations on admissibility and merits
4.1
On 29 June 2012, the State party submitted its observations on the admissibility and
merits of the communication. The State party considers that the communication should be
dismissed for lack of merit.
4.2
The State party outlines the facts of the case and describes the procedure followed
by the complainant at the national level. It highlights that in the complainant’s first
application to the Immigration Department for a protection visa she used the false name,
Mei Liu, and claimed that she feared being tortured by the Chinese authorities if she were
deported because she was a Falun Gong practitioner. The Immigration Department rejected
her application because it was not convinced that she had a well-founded fear of
persecution for any of the Refugees Convention reasons nor was it persuaded that she had a
significant leadership role in Falun Gong. It further indicated that the complainant would be
able to practice her religion in her private life without interference. Furthermore, the fact
that the complainant was able to leave China legally indicated that she was not of interest to
the Chinese authorities.
4.3
Regarding the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT), it could not verify the
complainant’s identity as she used different names and identity documents in her protection
visa application and the RRT application. Furthermore, she claimed that she was a Tien Tao
practitioner and withdrew her claim of being a Falun Gong practitioner. The RRT did not
accept that the complainant’s claim that she was a Tien Tao practitioner in China or that she
was harassed by the police. It held that the complainant’s engagement in Tien Tao activities
in Sydney was solely for the purpose of strengthening her refugee claim.
4.4
Following the dismissal of her application for judicial review by the Federal
Magistrate Court as well as of her appeal to the Federal Court of Australia, the complainant
submitted applications for intervention by the Minister for Migration in 2007, 2009 and
2010. In her 2010 request, the complainant reiterated her claim that it is due to the
misguiding advice she received from the migration agent that she was unable to genuinely
substantiate her claim before the Immigration Department. The case officers concluded that
there was no new credible information that would enhance the complainant’s chances of
making a successful protection visa application. In her last application to the Minister for
Migration for intervention, dated 4 March 2011, she supported her claim with an uncertified
photocopy of an untranslated Chinese document, which she claimed was the hospital report
describing the injury to her left index finger that was inflicted by the police at a temple
meeting. On 18 July 2011, the complainant’s request was deemed not to meet the
guidelines set out in sections 417 and 48B of the Migration Act, as they were the same
claims as those submitted earlier to the RRT, which had concluded that there was no
evidence to believe that the complainant was of interest to the Chinese authorities for
practicing Tien Tao or for any other reason.
4.5
After outlining the legal framework of the complainant’s application, the State party
submits that the complainant did not provide sufficient evidence that she would be
personally at risk of torture if deported to China. The photocopy of the medical report dated
17 February 2005 was examined by the Immigration Department in the context of the
application for ministerial intervention, which was deemed not to sufficiently support the
complainant’s claim that she had been beaten by the police and finalized on 18 July 2011.
The original document was not submitted to the Immigration Department, therefore its
genuineness could not be determined. Fraudulent documents, including hospital documents,
4