GARDOSE JECEL FLORENTINO v. TORTURE CLAIMS APPEAL BOARD

HCAL 409/2023

[2026] HKCFI 559

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CONSTITUTIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LAW LIST NO 409 OF 2023

Application for Leave to Apply for Judicial Review
NOTIFICATION of the Judge’s decision (Ord 53 r 3)

Following:

	consideration of the documents only;            or
	consideration of the documents and oral submissions by the Applicant in open court / the Applicant being absent in open court;

The application for leave to apply for judicial review be dismissed.

Observations for the Applicant:

1.  The Applicant is a 36-year-old national of the Philippines who last arrived in Hong Kong on 21 February 2020 with permission to continue to work as a foreign domestic helper until 27 March 2021 or within 14 days of its early termination, but upon the completion of her employment contract on 27 March 2021, she did not depart and instead overstayed, and on 19 July 2021 she surrendered to the Immigration Department and raised a non-refoulement claim for protection on the basis that if she returned to the Philippines she would be harmed or killed by her former boyfriend for leaving him and ending their relationship.

2.  The Applicant was born and raised in Barangay Bongsi, Mambusao, Capiz, the Philippines. After leaving school she worked in the factory, met and cohabited with her former boyfriend Kelvin, and raised a family with a son in Kelvin’s home in Barangay Cala Agus in the same district of Mambusao.

3.  However, soon she found Kelvin to be a bad-tempered alcoholic, and when drunk he would be violent and abusive towards her by slapping and punching her around that she often suffered cuts and bruises all over her body that on 2 occasions she left him but inevitably returned to resume their cohabitation.

4.  Yet the abuses from Kelvin continued until 2015 when the Applicant went to UAE to work as a domestic helper, but upon returning to the Philippines in 2017, Kelvin’s abusive behavior resumed, and so to stay away from him the Applicant in 2017 came to Hong Kong to work as a foreign domestic helper.

5.  In 2019, she met and formed a relationship with another man in Hong Kong, but when it was later discovered by Kelvin, he became furious and threatened her on the phone that he would kill her when she returned to the Philippines, and so after completing her last employment contract in March 2021, the Applicant was afraid to return to the Philippines and therefore overstayed in Hong Kong and subsequently raised her non-refoulement claim for protection, for which she completed a Non-refoulement Claim Form (“NCF”) on 15 September 2021 and attended screening interview before the Immigration Department with legal representation from the Duty Lawyer Service (“DLS”).

6.  By a Notice of Decision dated 7 October 2021, the Director of Immigration (“Director”) rejected the Applicant’s claim on all the applicable grounds including risk of torture under Part VIIC of the Immigration Ordinance, Cap 115 (“Torture Risk”), risk of her absolute or non-derogable rights under the Hong Kong Bill of Rights Ordinance, Cap 383 (“HKBOR”) being violated including right to life under Article 2 (“BOR 2 Risk”), risk of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment under Article 3 of HKBOR (“BOR 3 Risk”), and risk of persecution with reference to the non-refoulement principle under Article 33 of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (“Persecution Risk”).

7.  In his decision, the Director took into account of all the relevant circumstances of the Applicant’s claim and found no substantial grounds for believing that there will be any real and substantial risk of her being harmed or killed by her former boyfriend Kelvin upon her return to the Philippines due to the low intensity and frequency of past ill-treatment from him, that there is no evidence of any real intention of him to seriously harm or kill her other than some angry words and empty threats, that in any event it was a private relationship dispute between just the 2 of them only without any official involvement that state or police protection would be available to the Applicant if resorted to, and that reliable and objective Country of Origin Information (“COI”) show that reasonable internal relocation alternatives are available in the Philippines with a large population of 100 million people spread across a vast territory of more than 300,000 square kilometers that it would not be unduly harsh for the Applicant as an able-bodied adult with working experience to move to other areas of the country away from her home district in large cities such as Davao City or Cebu where it would be difficult if not impossible for Kelvin to locate her.

8.  On 20 October 2021, the Applicant lodged an appeal to the Torture Claims Appeal Board (“Board”) against the Director’s decision, and for which she attended an oral hearing on 14 July 2022 before the Board during which she gave evidence and answered questions raised of her claim by the Adjudicator for the Board. On 9 March 2023, her appeal was dismissed by the Board which also confirmed the Director’s decision.

9.  In its decision[1], the Board accepted the Applicant’s claim of fear of harm from her former boyfriend Kelvin for leaving him and ending their relationship but found no reliable evidence of any real intention of Kelvin to seriously harm or kill her other than angry words and empty threats, and that in any event it was a private relationship dispute between just the 2 of them only without any official involvement that state or police protection would be available to the Applicant upon her return to the Philippines as well as reasonable internal relocation alternatives for her to move safely to other parts of the country away from her home district without any risk of being located by Kelvin that her claim for non-refoulement protection failed on all applicable grounds.

10.  On 17 March 2023, the Applicant filed her Form 86 for leave to apply for judicial review of the Board’s decision, but no ground for seeking relief was given in her Form or in her supporting affirmation of the same date in which she just repeated her claim as before and that she does not agree with the decision but without putting forth any proper ground for her intended challenge. 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 of the Board’s decision.

11.  As has been repeatedly emphasized by the Court of Appeal, judicial review does not operate as a rehearing of a non-refoulement claim when the proper occasion for the Applicant to present and articulate his claim is in the screening process and interview before the Immigration Department and in the process before the Board where the evaluation of the risk of harm is primarily a matter for the Director and the Board as they are entitled to make such evaluation based on the evidence available to them that the court will not usurp their role as primary decision makers in the absence of any legal error or procedural unfairness or irrationality in their decisions being clearly and properly identified by the Applicant, as judicial review is not an avenue for revisiting the assessment by them in the hope that the court may consider the matter afresh: Re Lakhwinder Singh [2018] HKCA 246; Re Daljit Singh [2018] HKCA 328; Re Mudannayakalage Chaminda Pushpa Kumara [2018] HKCA 400; and Nupur Mst v Director of Immigration [2018] HKCA 524.

12.  In the Applicant’s case, the fact is that it has been correctly established by both the Director and the Board in their respective decisions that the risk of harm in her claim if real is a localized one and that it is not unreasonable or unsafe for her to relocate to other part of the Philippines, there is simply no justification to afford her with non-refoulement protection in Hong Kong: see TK v Jenkins & Anor [2013] 1 HKC 526.

13.  Having considered the decisions of both the Director and the Board with rigorous examination and anxious scrutiny, I do not find any error of law or procedural unfairness in either of them, nor any failure on their part to apply high standards of fairness in their consideration and assessment of the Applicant’s claim.

14.  Moreover, the Applicant recently on 6 January 2026 filed an affirmation requesting to withdraw her application as she has resolved her problem in her home country that she now wants to return to the Philippines.

15.  In the premises, as I am for the given reasons not satisfied that there is any prospect of success in the Applicant’s intended application for judicial review, and in view of her latest confirmation of no more problem for her to return to her home country, I accordingly dismiss her leave application.

Where leave to apply has been granted, Applicants and their legal advisers are reminded of their obligation to reconsider the merits of their application in the light of the Respondent’s evidence

Form CALL-1