BAGUION MARICEL ALANO v. TORTURE CLAIMS APPEAL BOARD

HCAL 71/2022

[2025] HKCFI 5019

IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE

HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION

COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE

CONSTITUTIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LAW LIST NO 71 OF 2022

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

Following:

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

Observations for the Applicant:

1.  The Applicant is a 53-year-old national of the Philippines who last arrived in Hong Kong on 9 September 2019 with permission to continue to work as a foreign domestic helper until the expiration of her employment contract or within 14 days of its early termination, but when her last employment was prematurely terminated on 24 December 2020, she did not depart and instead overstayed, and on 3 March 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 partner over their domestic disputes. She was subsequently released on recognizance pending the determination of her claim.  

2.  The Applicant was born and raised in Fabella, Manila, the Philippines.  After leaving school she cohabited with her partner and raised a family with 3 children in her home district.

3.  In 2014 she started coming to Hong Kong to work as a foreign domestic helper to help out with the family’s finance, returning to her home in the Philippines only for holidays.

4.  In 2019 when she returned to her home for holiday, her partner started to complain about her being away for too long in Hong Kong when she seldom answered his calls and suspected that she might be having another boyfriend in Hong Kong, and when the Applicant rebuked his accusations by claiming to be too busy with her work that she was not able to answer his calls, it led to a heated quarrel between them during which her partner tried to attack her and threatened to kill her until being restrained by the Applicant’s sister.

5.  As a result the Applicant decided to leave her partner and therefore moved the children to her sister’s place before returning to Hong Kong to continue with her employment, during which she was informed by her sister that her partner had been looking for her everywhere, and so after her last employment was prematurely terminated in December 2020, she 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 24 May 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 18 June 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 assessed the level of risk of harm from her partner upon her return to the Philippines as low due to the low intensity and frequency of past ill-treatment from him, that there is no evidence of any real intention of her partner to seriously harm or kill her other than angry words and empty threats, that in any event it was a private domestic 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 110 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 Manila or Cebu where it would be difficult if not impossible for her partner to locate her.

8.  The Applicant then lodged an appeal to the Torture Claims Appeal Board (“Board”) against the Director’s decision, and for which she attended an oral hearing on 4 October 2021 before the Board during which she gave evidence and answered questions raised of her claim by the Adjudicator for the Board.  On 14 January 2022 her appeal was dismissed by the Board which also confirmed the Director’s decision.

9.  In its decision[1] the Board found material inconsistencies and discrepancies in the Applicant’s evidence that it doubted the credibility of her claim of fear of harm from her partner over their relationship dispute that caused her to overstay in Hong Kong to seek protection, that even if her account of threats from her partner were true that there was no reliable evidence of any real intention of her partner to seriously harm or kill her other than angry words and empty threats, and that in any event it was a private domestic dispute between 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 her partner that her claim for non-refoulement protection failed on all applicable grounds.  

10.  On 19 January 2022 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 her supporting affidavit of the same date to which she just attached a copy of the decision but without putting forth any proper ground for her intended challenge, nor did she request any oral hearing for her application.  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 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 15 August 2025 filed an affidavit requesting to withdraw her application as her partner has already passed away and hence it is now safe for her to return to her home country.

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 that it is safe 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