Date: 19990325
Docket: IMM-1978-98
BETWEEN:
LOKONGA KAPAYA
Applicant
- and -
THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION
Respondent
REASONS FOR ORDER
NADON J.:
[1] The applicant seeks to set aside a decision of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Convention Refugee Determination Division (the "Board") dated April 3, 1998 pursuant to which the Board dismissed her claim to refugee status in Canada.
[2] The applicant, a citizen of Zaire, arrived in Canada on November 28, 1996, and claimed refugee status on the ground that she was perceived as a Rwanda Tutsi and thus was at risk of persecution from the local population. The applicant submits that the government is unable or unwilling to protect her.
[3] The Board concluded that the applicant was not credible and, as a result, dismissed her claim. Specifically, the Board was not satisfied that the applicant had lived in Zaire from November 1994 to November 1996, which she claims to have left on November 24, 1996.
[4] The Board reproached the applicant for not having indicated in her personal information form ("P.I.F.") that she had travelled to Belgium in September 1994. When confronted at the hearing with information to the effect that she had applied to study in Belgium, the applicant explained that she had travelled to Belgium in September 1994 and had departed at the end of November for Zaire. When asked why she had not mentioned her trip to Belgium in her P.I.F., the applicant indicated that she saw no need to disclose it since it was not "a real trip". The applicant"s passport shows two entries stamped in Brussels, one dated September 21, 1994 and the second one dated November 28, 1994. This possibly indicates that the applicant entered Belgium on September 28 and departed on November 28, 1994. The applicant testified that she left Brussels and returned to Zaire where she remained until November 1996. Other than the applicant"s viva voce evidence, there is no evidence to show that the applicant resided in Zaire for two years.
[5] Because the Board had doubts regarding her credibility, it was not satisfied with the evidence adduced regarding her place of residence between 1994 and 1996. Consequently, the Board concluded that the applicant had not demonstrated that she had lived in Zaire during the two years prior to her departure for Canada on November 24, 1996.
[6] In my view, the Board"s finding that the applicant lacked credibility is, on the evidence, quite reasonable. It was therefore open to the Board to require from the applicant further and better evidence regarding her place on residence between 1994 and 1996. As no such evidence was provided, the Board was, in my view, entitled to conclude that the applicant had not shown that there was a possibility of persecution should she return to her country.
[7] For these reasons, this application for judicial review is dismissed.
OTTAWA, ONTARIO "MARC NADON"
| March 25, 1999 JUDGE |