1419387 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered the case of an applicant seeking a protection visa. The applicant claimed to be a Bengali Sunni Muslim from Bangladesh who feared persecution due to past extortion by a man named Mr. A, a member of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The applicant alleged that Mr. A had extorted him for money on multiple occasions, threatened to kill him, and had a history of violence, including murder. The applicant left his home in Bangladesh in 2009 to avoid Mr. A and subsequently travelled to Australia.

The legal issues before the Tribunal were whether the applicant met the criteria for a protection visa under section 36(2)(a) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), which requires the applicant to be a refugee as defined by the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, or under section 36(2)(aa), which concerns complementary protection. Specifically, the Tribunal had to determine if the applicant had a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, or if there was a real risk of significant harm if returned to Bangladesh.

The Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicant a protection visa. While acknowledging the applicant's claims of extortion and fear, the Tribunal found that the evidence did not establish a well-founded fear of persecution for a Convention reason. The Tribunal considered the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) country information, which indicated that while political violence and harassment occur in Bangladesh, particularly between the Awami League and BNP, the applicant's specific circumstances, including his claimed social group of "villagers making a decent income, making us vulnerable for extortion," did not meet the threshold for a Convention reason. The Tribunal also noted that the applicant had not demonstrated that he would be unable or unwilling to avail himself of the protection of Bangladesh, nor that the Bangladeshi authorities would be unable or unwilling to protect him from Mr. A. The Tribunal concluded that the applicant did not satisfy the criteria for a protection visa.