1703879 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered the case of an applicant seeking a protection visa, who claimed to be a citizen of the People's Republic of China. The applicant had arrived in Australia in March 2014 and had lodged multiple visa applications, including a Protection visa application in August 2016. The Tribunal was tasked with determining whether the applicant met the criteria for a protection visa under either section 36(2)(a) (refugee criterion) or section 36(2)(aa) (complementary protection criterion) of the Migration Act 1958.

The legal issues before the Tribunal were whether the applicant had a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, or whether there were substantial grounds for believing that the applicant would suffer significant harm as a necessary and foreseeable consequence of removal to China. The Tribunal was required to consider the applicant's claims in light of policy guidelines and country information assessments, and to assess the credibility and consistency of the evidence provided, including statutory declarations from the applicant and her family, and correspondence.

The Tribunal found that the applicant's claims were not substantiated to the required standard. While acknowledging the applicant's Chinese nationality and that she did not have a right to reside elsewhere, the Tribunal concluded that the applicant did not satisfy the criteria for a protection visa. The decision notes that the applicant did not satisfy section 36(2) and also did not satisfy the criteria under section 36(2)(aa) concerning complementary protection. The Tribunal affirmed the delegate's decision not to grant the applicant a protection visa.