Court rules for East Timorese refugee

Court rules for East Timorese refugee

By Max Lane

On May 2, the full Federal Court set aside a decision of the Refugee Review Tribunal that East Timorese refugee Jong Kim Koe was not a refugee under the International Refugees Convention. The tribunal will now need to re-hear the case.

The tribunal had found that while Jong would face a real chance of persecution in Indonesia, he had both Portuguese and Indonesian citizenship — and under international refugee conventions, somebody with dual citizenship must face persecution in both countries before they can be regarded as a refugee.

The Federal Court decided that the tribunal had erred in considering only the formal fact of Jong's Portuguese citizenship and not the "effectiveness of the protection available to the person by the country of his second nationality".

Jong arrived in Australia in March 1992, having decided to leave East Timor following his involvement in the protests in Dili on November 12, 1991, which were attacked by the Indonesian military, killing more than 270 East Timorese.

Jong's first language is Tetum, the language of East Timor. He was two years old when the Portuguese presence ended. He does not speak Portuguese and has no connections with Portugal, while four siblings are resident in Australia.

The Portuguese government has it made it clear that it will not accept East Timorese deported to Portugal against their will.

From GLW issue 273