1602870 (Refugee)

This matter concerned an application for a Protection visa by a citizen of China. The applicant claimed he and his wife would face persecution if returned to China due to their Christian faith. His wife had previously been arrested and detained for attending an underground church and distributing religious pamphlets, and had allegedly been mistreated by police. The applicant also claimed that following a criminal case in Shandong Province in 2014, Christians were being arrested on a large scale in China, and that his wife’s church friends were living as fugitives under police monitoring. The decision was made by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant met the criteria for the grant of a Protection visa under section 36(2) of the Act. Specifically, the Tribunal considered whether the applicant satisfied the refugee criterion in section 36(2)(a) or the complementary protection criterion in section 36(2)(aa). The Tribunal was required to assess whether there were substantial grounds for believing that, as a necessary and foreseeable consequence of being removed from Australia to China, the applicant would suffer significant harm.

The Tribunal considered the applicant's claims in light of Ministerial Direction No. 56, policy guidelines from the Department of Immigration, and country information assessments from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The Tribunal found that there was no suggestion that the applicant satisfied section 36(2) of the Act, either directly or as a member of the same family unit as a person who satisfied the criteria. Consequently, the Tribunal concluded that the applicant did not meet the criterion in section 36(2) of the Act.

The Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicant a Protection visa.