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HCAL 824/2025
[2026] HKCFI 4686
IN THE HIGH COURT OF THE
HONG KONG SPECIAL ADMINISTRATIVE REGION
COURT OF FIRST INSTANCE
CONSTITUTIONAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE LAW LIST NO 824 OF 2025
BETWEEN
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Saputro Joko |
Applicant |
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and |
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Torture Claims Appeal Board |
Putative |
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Respondent |
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and |
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Director of Immigration |
Putative |
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Interested Party |
Application for Leave to Apply for Judicial Review
NOTIFICATION of the Judge’s decision (Ord 53 r 3)
Following:
Order by Deputy High Court Judge Bruno Chan:
The application for leave to apply for Judicial Review be dismissed.
Observations for the Applicant:
1. The Applicant is a 37-year-old national of Indonesia who arrived in Hong Kong on 9 March 2024 as a visitor with permission to remain as such up to 8 April 2024 when he did not depart and instead overstayed, and was arrested by police on 30 June 2024. After he was referred to the Immigration Department for investigation, he raised a non-refoulement claim for protection on the basis that if he returned to Indonesia he would be harmed or killed by his creditors for failing to repay his debts. He was subsequently released on recognizance pending the determination of his claim.
2. The Applicant was born and raised in Desa Pakuan Aji, Kec. Sukadana, Lampung Timur, Indonesia. After leaving school he worked as a fisherman in his home district as well as in Thailand and Taiwan, later married his wife and raised a family with 2 children in his home district.
3. In 2023 he started his own farming business with the help of various loans borrowed from several local money-lenders to be repaid by monthly instalments with interests which he initially managed to make from his business income.
4. However, his business did poorly that by August 2023 he had to close it down, and in October 2023 he left Indonesia for Malaysia to look for jobs, but during which he was unable to earn enough to make any repayments of his loans.
5. Upon completing his employment in Malaysia, he was invited by his friend to come to Hong Kong for sight-seeing, and so on 9 March 2024 he arrived in Hong Kong, during which however he was informed by his family in Indonesia that his creditors had come looking for him over his outstanding loans, and when they were unable to find him, his creditors became furious and threatened to kill him if they found him, and so the Applicant was advised not to return to Indonesia to save his life and therefore overstayed in Hong Kong, and upon his subsequent arrest by the police he then raised his non-refoulement claim for protection, for which he completed a Non-refoulement Claim Form (“NCF”) on 15 August 2024 and attended screening interview before the Immigration Department with legal representation from the Duty Lawyer Service (“DLS”).
6. By a Notice of Decision dated 16 January 2025 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 his 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 all the relevant circumstances of the Applicant’s claim and assessed the level of risk of harm from his creditors upon his return to Indonesia as low due to the low intensity and frequency of past ill-treatment from them, that there is no evidence of any real intention of his creditors to seriously harm or kill him other than to press him to repay his debts, that in any event these were private monetary disputes between him and his creditors only without any official involvement and that state or police protection would be available to the Applicant if resorted to, and that reliable and objective Country of Origin Information (“COI”) shows that reasonable internal relocation alternatives are available in Indonesia with a large population of 280 million people spread across a vast territory of more than 1.9 million 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 his home district in large cities such as Bali or Surabaya where it would be difficult if not impossible for his creditors to locate him.
8. On 23 January 2025 the Applicant lodged an appeal to the Torture Claims Appeal Board (“Board”) against the Director’s decision, and for which he attended an oral hearing on 5 March 2025 before the Board during which he gave evidence and answered questions raised of his claim by the Adjudicator for the Board. On 24 March 2025 his 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 his claim of fear of harm from some creditors over unpaid debts that caused him to overstay in Hong Kong to seek protection, that even if his account of events in Indonesia were true that there was no reliable evidence of any real intention of any of his creditors to seriously harm or kill him other than to press him to repay his debts, and that in any event these were private monetary disputes between him and his creditors only without any official involvement that state or police protection would be available to the Applicant upon his return to Indonesia if resorted to as well as reasonable internal relocation alternatives for him to move safely to other parts of the country away from his home district without any risk of being located by any of his creditors that his claim for non-refoulement protection failed on all applicable grounds.
10. On 7 April 2025 the Applicant filed his Form 86 for leave to apply for judicial review of the Board’s decision, but no ground for seeking relief was given in his Form or his supporting affirmation of the same date in which he cited some legal principles applicable to non-refoulement claims and just asserted that the Adjudicator failed to give him a true decision but without providing any details or particulars or elaboration as to how it was so, nor did he put forward any proper ground for his intended challenge or request any oral hearing for his application. As such, and in the absence of any error of law or irrationality or procedural unfairness in his 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 his 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 his claim if real is a localized one and that it is not unreasonable or unsafe for him to relocate to other parts of Indonesia, there is simply no justification to afford him 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 has recently on 20 July 2026 requested in writing to withdraw his application as his issues have been resolved that he now wants to return to Indonesia as soon as possible.
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 his latest confirmation that there is no more issue for him to return to his home country, I accordingly dismiss his leave application.
Dated the 26th day of August 2026
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(Joyce Ooi)
for Registrar, High Court
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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
Notes for the Applicant:
If leave has been granted, the Applicant or his solicitors must:
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a) serve on the respondent and such interested parties as may be directed by the Court the order granting leave and any directions given within 14 days after the leave was granted (Order 53, rule 4A);
b) issue the originating summons within 14 days after the grant of leave and serve it in accordance with Order 53, rule 5; and
c) supply to every other party copies of every affidavit which the Applicant proposes to use at the hearing, including the affidavit in support of the application for leave (Order 53, rule 6(5)).
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Sent to the Applicant on 26 August 2026
Saputro Joko
Applicant’s ref. no.:
Nil. |
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Sent to the Putative Respondent / the Putative Respondent’s solicitors / such Putative Interested Parties as may be directed by the Court / the Putative Interested Parties’ solicitors on 26 August 2026
Torture Claims Appeal Board
Putative Respondent’s ref. no.:
USM 25477
Director of Immigration
Putative Respondent’s ref. no.:
QA T/C 1985/24
(formerly RBCZ 5001590/24)
Department of Justice,
Senior Assistant Law Officer
(Civil Law)
(Civil Litigation Unit 2) |
Form CALL-1
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