1714932 (Refugee)

The applicant, a stateless Rohingya from Myanmar, sought a protection visa. The core of the dispute concerned whether the applicant would face persecution or significant harm due to her ethnicity if returned to Myanmar. The applicant presented evidence including statutory declarations, interviews with departmental officers, and oral testimony from herself and a witness at a Tribunal hearing.

The legal issue before the Tribunal was to determine if the applicant qualified as a refugee under section 36(2)(a) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth), which requires a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. This involved assessing whether the applicant was a stateless Rohingya from Myanmar and whether there was a real chance she would suffer persecution or significant harm upon return, considering the provisions of sections 5J, 5K, and 5L of the Act. The Tribunal also considered the complementary protection criterion under section 36(2)(aa), which applies if there are substantial grounds for believing that removal would result in a real risk of significant harm.

The Tribunal considered the applicant's claims of experiencing discrimination, harm, and violence from authorities and other ethnic groups in Myanmar due to her Rohingya ethnicity and Muslim religion. This included allegations of land confiscation, village attacks, arbitrary detention, torture of her father, and the killing of her father following vigilante attacks supported by authorities. The Tribunal also had regard to Ministerial Direction No. 84, the 'Refugee Law Guidelines', 'Complementary Protection Guidelines', and country information from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Ultimately, the Tribunal concluded that the matter should be remitted for reconsideration. The Tribunal directed that the applicant satisfies section 36(2)(a) of the *Migration Act*, indicating that Australia has protection obligations towards her as a refugee.