1421119 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered the protection visa application of a woman who claimed to fear harm upon return to Iraq due to her Shia religious affiliation and her marriage to a Sunni Muslim. She alleged that Shia militants targeted her and her family, threatening, abusing, and attacking them, including shooting at their home and killing a relative. She also claimed an indirect fear of harm from ISIS due to her Shia faith. The applicant asserted that Iraqi authorities had failed to provide effective protection in the past.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was 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 non-citizen in Australia in respect of whom Australia has protection obligations. This involved assessing the credibility of her claims regarding the fear of persecution and the availability of protection within Iraq.

The Tribunal, applying Ministerial Direction No. 56, considered policy guidelines and country information relevant to protection status determination. While the decision text does not detail the full reasoning for the remittal, it indicates that the Tribunal was satisfied that the first applicant met the criterion under s.36(2)(a). Consequently, the Tribunal remitted the matter for reconsideration with the direction that the first applicant satisfies s.36(2)(a) and the second applicant (presumably a family member) satisfies s.36(2)(b)(i) based on their membership in the same family unit.