1421048 (Refugee)

The applicant, claiming to be Mr A, born in Myanmar, sought a Protection visa after entering Australia in May 2010 under the name [Name B] on a Bangladeshi passport. His initial student visa was cancelled in April 2010, and a subsequent review by the Migration Review Tribunal in June 2011 found it lacked jurisdiction. The applicant remained in Australia as an unlawful non-citizen until applying for a Protection visa in December 2013. The core of the dispute revolved around the applicant's claimed identity as Mr A, a Rohingya Muslim, and whether his experiences, as presented, met the criteria for protection under Australian law.

The legal issues before the Tribunal were whether the applicant met the criteria for a Protection visa as outlined in section 36 of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) and Schedule 2 of the Migration Regulations 1994 (Cth). Specifically, the Tribunal had to determine if the applicant was a person in respect of whom Australia had protection obligations under the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, or alternatively, if he met the complementary protection criterion due to a real risk of significant harm upon removal from Australia. The central question was the credibility of the applicant's claims and whether, even if accepted, they satisfied these protection criteria.

The Tribunal considered the applicant's statement detailing his family's flight from Myanmar in 1992 due to persecution, their subsequent settlement in Bangladesh, and a tragic motor vehicle accident in 2007 that resulted in the death of his parents and sister. He claimed to have been raised by foster parents in Bangladesh who facilitated his travel to Australia. The Tribunal noted that the applicant did not suggest he was a family member of someone who already held a protection visa. Ultimately, the Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicant a Protection visa, concluding that the applicant did not satisfy the criteria under section 36 of the Act.