1717820 (Refugee)

The applicant, a Chinese citizen, sought a protection visa, claiming a fear of persecution upon return to China due to her religious beliefs and involvement with an unregistered church. The applicant stated that she had been warned by her school principal in 2007 about her involvement with the outlawed family church and had been suspended. She further alleged that her mother was arrested and detained by police in March 2016, suffering physical and psychological harm during her nine-day detention, during which she was questioned about the local family church. The applicant expressed concern that she would face similar detention and harm if returned to China.

The court was required to determine whether the applicant met the criteria for a protection visa, specifically whether there were substantial grounds to believe that, as a necessary and foreseeable consequence of her removal from Australia, she would suffer significant harm. This involved assessing the applicant's claims regarding her religious persecution and the credibility of her evidence, particularly in light of her period of unlawful work in Australia and delay in lodging her visa application. The court also considered the definition of "significant harm" as outlined in section 36(2A) of the relevant legislation, which includes arbitrary deprivation of life, the carrying out of the death penalty, torture, or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment, and the meaning of "real risk" as a "real chance."

The court found that the applicant did not satisfy the criterion in section 36(2) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth). While the applicant presented claims of religious persecution, including her own alleged warning at school and her mother's detention and mistreatment, the decision indicates that these claims, when considered against other factors such as the applicant's period of unlawful employment and the delay in her application, did not establish a real risk of significant harm. The court affirmed the decision not to grant the applicant a protection visa.