1618085 (Refugee)

This matter concerned an application for review of a delegate of the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection's decision to refuse the applicant a protection visa. The applicant, a citizen of Pakistan, claimed to fear persecution due to his Shia Muslim faith and his activism within a Shia organisation, alleging threats from Sunni extremists and a lack of state protection.

The court was required to determine whether the applicant met the criteria for a protection visa under the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). Specifically, the court had to consider whether the applicant had a "well-founded fear of persecution" for reasons of religion or membership of a particular social group, and whether effective protection measures were available to him in Pakistan. The court also needed to assess if the alleged harm constituted "serious harm" as defined by the Act.

The court affirmed the delegate's decision not to grant the protection visa. The reasoning indicated that the applicant's fear of persecution was not sufficiently established to meet the threshold of a "well-founded fear" under section 5J of the Act. The court considered the applicant's past movements and his claims of harm, but ultimately found that the evidence did not demonstrate a real chance of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, or membership of a particular social group, nor did it establish that such persecution would involve systematic and discriminatory conduct or constitute serious harm. Furthermore, the court implicitly considered whether effective protection measures were available, finding them to be sufficient to negate the claimed fear.