1606358 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (the Tribunal) considered the case of a male Malaysian national seeking a protection visa. The applicant claimed to owe money to illegal lenders in Malaysia, who had allegedly made threats against him for failing to repay the debt. He had not informed the police of these threats and was unwilling to relocate within Malaysia.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether Australia owed protection obligations to the applicant, specifically whether he met the criteria for a protection visa under sections 36(2)(a) and 36(2)(aa) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). This involved assessing whether the applicant had a well-founded fear of persecution or faced a real risk of significant harm if returned to Malaysia, and whether effective protection measures were available to him in that country. The Tribunal was required to consider relevant policy guidelines and country information assessments.

The Tribunal affirmed the delegate's decision not to grant the applicant a protection visa. It accepted the applicant's identity and nationality as Malaysian. While acknowledging the applicant's claims regarding debt and threats from illegal lenders, the Tribunal concluded that these circumstances did not establish a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. Furthermore, the Tribunal found that the applicant did not satisfy the complementary protection criterion under section 36(2)(aa), as there was no indication that he would suffer significant harm upon removal from Australia. The Tribunal noted that the applicant did not satisfy the criterion under section 36(2) by being a family member of someone who held a protection visa.