1518023 (Refugee)

This decision concerns an application for protection visas by individuals from Fiji. The core of the dispute revolved around whether the applicants, specifically an Indo-Fijian woman without male protection, faced a real risk of persecution, including sexual assault and violence, upon return to Fiji. The matter was heard by Ms Christine Long.

The Tribunal was required to determine if the applicants met the criteria for a protection visa, specifically whether they had a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. This involved assessing whether any such fear related to all areas of Fiji and whether effective protection measures were available to them in their home country. The Tribunal also considered whether the applicants could take reasonable steps to avoid persecution without compromising fundamental aspects of their identity or conscience.

The Tribunal's reasoning focused on the definition of a well-founded fear of persecution, which requires a real chance of persecution for one of the specified reasons, and that this persecution relates to all areas of the receiving country. The Tribunal found that while the applicants might face harm, it was not satisfied that this harm constituted persecution for the purposes of the Act, nor that it was a real chance across all areas of Fiji. The Tribunal concluded that effective protection measures were available and that the fear of future harm was limited to a local area, making relocation to other areas of Fiji a viable option to avoid such harm.

Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicants protection visas, finding they did not satisfy the relevant criteria under section 36(2) of the Act.