Timothy Wichert

The applicant, a citizen of Colombia and youth rugby coach, sought refugee protection based on threats from an armed group, Los Rastrojos, who wanted him to recruit for them.

The RPD rejected the claim, finding no nexus to a Convention ground under section 96 and that he had a viable internal flight alternative in Tunja under section 97.

The Federal Court dismissed the application for judicial review, finding the RPD's decision reasonable regarding both the lack of political nexus and the viability of the internal flight alternative.

The applicants, citizens of Eritrea residing in Sudan, sought judicial review of a migration officer's decision rejecting their applications for permanent resident visas.

The officer found the principal applicant not credible due to misrepresentations and omissions about past travel and visa refusals, which the applicant admitted to during an interview and later attempted to clarify via affidavit evidence not before the officer.

The Federal Court held the credibility findings were reasonable, as the officer based her decision on the applicant's admission of lying.

The Court found no breach of procedural fairness and concluded that a negative credibility finding precluded the necessity to assess the underlying persecution claims.