1506299 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered the case of an applicant seeking a protection visa for Vietnam. The applicant claimed to have fled Vietnam due to social discrimination, forced government acquisition of farm land, a physical altercation with an official, and a lack of freedom of religion as a Catholic. The Department of Immigration had previously refused the visa.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant had established a well-founded fear of persecution or serious harm upon return to Vietnam, based on the claims he articulated. This involved assessing the consistency of his statements and the credibility of his asserted reasons for leaving Vietnam against the available country information and his prior statements to the Department.

The Tribunal found inconsistencies between the applicant's statements made at the entry interview with the Department and his later claims presented to the Tribunal. Specifically, the Tribunal rejected the applicant's assertion that he had informed the Departmental interview officer of fleeing to Nghe An Province, finding the Department's written record of the interview to be accurate. Furthermore, the Tribunal noted that the applicant failed to mention the specific reasons for departure that he later declared in his protection visa statement during his entry interview. The Tribunal also considered that the applicant had ample opportunity to raise claims regarding a Vietnamese delegation's visit but did not do so, and therefore did not treat this as a claim raised by the applicant.

The Tribunal concluded that the decision under review, which refused the protection visa, should be affirmed.