Legal reprieve for refugee family

By Leonie Lamont.
Sydney Morning Herald, April 9 2002.

The tortuous road to a permanent home in Australia took another turn for the Badraie family yesterday, when the full bench of the Federal Court ordered that their application for refugee status be re-heard.

Refugee advocates were celebrating the decision of Justices Lee, Moore and Madgwick, who found the Refugee Review Tribunal had erred in assessing the Badraies' claims of persecution if they were returned to Iran.

Mohammed Saeed Badraie, his then four-year-old son, Shayan and his pregnant wife, Zahra Saberi, arrived illegally in March 2000. Shayan was allegedly so traumatised by what he saw and experienced at Woomera and Villawood detention centres that he developed acute post traumatic stress disorder. His case highlighted the issue of children in detention.

The Badraies were facing deportation last May after a single Federal Court judge upheld the tribunal's decision that they should not be granted a visa. Jacquie Everitt, co-ordinator of the social justice organisation Just and Fair Asylum, said the successful appeal, researched and argued by barrister Stephen Churches, was an example of the "unlimited generosity" of many lawyers who worked free for asylum seekers. She said Ms Saberi had been overjoyed at the news.

The full bench found that the tribunal had not considered whether Mr Badraie, who was a member of the minority religious group Al-Haqq, or his wife, who had converted from Islam to Al-Haqq, would be harmed by either his wife's family, or authorities, if they returned to Iran. The court was told her conversion could attract the death penalty. Also, it had not considered that Mr Badraie may be harmed because of his proselytising to his wife.

Michaela Byers, solicitor for Mr Badraie, said an application would be made for Mr Badraie to live in the community with his family until the tribunal re-heard the case. Shayan was released from detention late last year because of his deteriorating medical condition and placed in foster care. His stepmother and baby sister were given temporary visas in January to allow them out to look after him.

A spokesman for the Immigration Minister, Philip Ruddock, said the case would go to the minister only if the family were found not to be refugees. Any application for temporary release would be judged on its merits, he said.