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| The High Court, where the Court of First Instance holds it proceedings |
A former domestic helper from Bulacan has failed to convince the High Court to review the denial of her application for asylum in Hong Kong, which she based on fear that a former boyfriend would harm or kill her for leaving him.
Analyn Alenio, 39 years old, had appealed to the High Court after
the Immigration Department and the Torture Claims Appeal Board rejected non-refoulement
claim for failing to meet the standard test for asylum applications.
“… 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 or merits in her intended application,” declared the Court of
First Instance ruling dated dated Aug. 8, 2024 and signed by Chung Lai Fan for the High Court Registrar on
order by Deputy High Court Judge Bruno Chan.
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| Basahin ang detalye! |
”… judicial review is
not an avenue for revisiting the assessment by them in the hope that the court
may consider the matter afresh,” the decision said, citing previous cases.
Alenio last arrived in Hong Kong on Aug. 14, 2020 to work as a domestic helper. However, her employment was terminated on Oct. 20, 2022, and she did not leave after her 14-day visa extension expired.
She was arrested by police six months later on May 4, 2023, was
subsequently convicted of overstaying and jailed for 15 months.
While in jail, she filed her non-refoulement claim for
protection from being deported, claiming that she would be harmed or killed by
her former boyfriend, with whom she bore three children, because she wanted to
separate from him for having an affair with another woman.
That claim was rejected by the Immigration Department, which
noted that she failed to meet all the applicable grounds including risk of
torture, risk of her absolute or non-derogable rights under the Hong Kong Bill
of Rights Ordinance, risk of torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment
or punishment and risk of persecution.
The department also noted that this “was a private
relationship dispute between 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 117 million people spread across a
vast territory of more than 298,000 square kilometers.”
Alenio appealed to the Torture Claims Appeal Board, where she
gave evidence and answered questions in a hearing on Dec. 18, 2023, but her
appeal was dismissed on Dec. 22 on the same grounds.
She brought the case to the Court of First Instance on April
19, 2024 – almost one month later than the three months allowed to file an appeal –
and did not give a “proper ground” for the judicial review, other than giving “a
regurgitation of her claim as before of fear of harm from her former boyfriend….”
The ruling noted.
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