1516988 (Refugee)

This decision concerns an application for judicial review of a Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT) decision. The applicant, a Sri Lankan citizen of Tamil Muslim ethnicity, claimed he feared returning to Sri Lanka due to an incident in April 2012 where he believed he was being surveilled by CID officers while working for a man he later learned was a people smuggler. He further stated that his father informed him that unknown individuals, believed to be CID officers, had searched for him and threatened harm, leading him to flee Sri Lanka in June 2012 and eventually arrive in Australia by boat. The applicant contended that the authorities might suspect him of involvement in people smuggling or being an associate of the individual he worked for, and that his ethnic and religious background also placed him at risk.

The legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant met the criteria for a protection visa under section 36(2) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). Specifically, the Tribunal had to determine if the applicant had a well-founded fear of persecution or harm if returned to Sri Lanka, based on the claims he presented. The Tribunal also considered whether the applicant satisfied the criterion by being a member of the same family unit as a person who held a protection visa, though this was not suggested to be the case.

The Tribunal affirmed the delegate's decision not to grant the applicant a protection visa. The Tribunal found that the applicant did not satisfy the criterion in section 36(2) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). The decision does not elaborate on the specific reasoning for this finding, other than noting the absence of any suggestion that the applicant qualified through family membership. The Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicant a protection visa.