1621420 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered the protection visa applications of a Ukrainian national and her child. The applicant sought protection in Australia, claiming she feared persecution and significant harm if returned to Ukraine due to the ongoing conflict, general violence, and poor economic conditions.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant met the criteria for a protection visa under section 36(2)(a) or 36(2)(aa) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). This required determining if she had a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, or if there was a real risk of significant harm upon removal from Australia. The Tribunal also considered whether effective protection measures were available to the applicant in Ukraine.

The Tribunal reasoned that while the applicant presented evidence of general violence and instability in Ukraine, including in her home city of Kharkiv, she had not established a well-founded fear of persecution for a Convention reason. Specifically, her claims regarding imputed political opinion as pro-democracy were not sufficiently substantiated, and her assertion of being part of a "Russian-speaking Ukrainian minority" as a particular social group did not meet the criteria under the Act. Furthermore, the Tribunal found that the general risks faced by the population in Ukraine, including economic hardship and crime, did not amount to significant harm to the applicant personally, nor were there specific grounds to believe she would be targeted. The Tribunal also considered the possibility of internal relocation within Ukraine and the availability of state protection, concluding that these factors mitigated the risk of significant harm.

Ultimately, the Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicants protection visas, finding that they did not satisfy the criteria under section 36(2)(a) or (aa) of the *Migration Act 1958*.