1508615 (Refugee)

The applicants, a mother and her two daughters, sought protection in Australia, claiming a fear of harm upon return to the Philippines. The dispute centred on whether the apprehended harm constituted persecution for a Convention reason, specifically membership of a particular social group. The matter came before the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) for determination.

The primary legal issue before the RRT was whether the applicants, as women and a single mother who had experienced domestic violence, constituted a particular social group for the purposes of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). The RRT was required to consider whether the apprehended harm from the applicant's former husband was for a Convention reason, or if it was of a purely personal nature, and whether the Philippine state would fail to offer protection on a Convention ground.

The RRT found that while the applicants had experienced physical and emotional violence and genuinely feared harm from the applicant's husband, the apprehended harm was essentially personal. The Tribunal noted that the husband's alleged intention to hire a killer was undermined by the fact that the named individual was already imprisoned for murder. Consequently, the RRT concluded that the harm feared was not for a Convention reason, and therefore, the applicants did not meet the criteria for a protection visa. The RRT applied the principles of refugee law, considering the definition of a "particular social group" and the requirement for persecution to be based on a Convention reason.