S v Refugee Status Appeals Authority - [1998] 2 NZLR 301

Immigration — Refugee status — Application for review of decision of the Refugee Status Appeals Authority — Whether there were ``serious reasons for considering'' that the plaintiff ``committed a serious non-political crime'' outside New Zealand prior to his admission to this country as a refugee — Whether the plaintiff fitted the description of a refugee — Correct standard of proof dictated by the words ``serious reasons for considering'' in art 1F of the convention — Whether robberies could properly be described as ``political'' crimes — Whether the crimes were serious — Whether the Refugee Status Appeals Authority was obliged to carry out a balancing exercise weighing the seriousness of the crime on the one hand, and the gravity of the consequences of returning an appellant to homeland — United Nations 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, arts 1A(2), 1F(a) and (b) and 33(2) — Crimes Act 1961, s 24(1).