1721743 (Refugee)

The applicant, a male from Vietnam, sought a protection visa in Australia. He claimed he feared harm from creditors to whom he owed money and that he belonged to the Khmer Krom ethnic group, fearing persecution due to his ethnicity. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) was required to determine whether the applicant met the criteria for a protection visa, either under the refugee convention or Australia's complementary protection obligations.

The Tribunal considered two primary claims: the fear of harm from creditors and the association with the Khmer Krom ethnic group. In assessing these claims, the Tribunal had regard to Ministerial Direction No. 56, relevant policy guidelines, and country information assessments. The Tribunal was required to determine if there were substantial grounds for believing that, as a necessary and foreseeable consequence of removal from Australia, the applicant faced a real risk of suffering significant harm.

The Tribunal found that the applicant's claims regarding creditors were manufactured and not credible. Furthermore, the Tribunal was not satisfied that the applicant had any genuine association with the Khmer Krom ethnic group, noting that this claim was only raised late in the process and contradicted earlier statements. The Tribunal concluded that the applicant had not established a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, nor had he demonstrated a real risk of suffering significant harm. The Tribunal also considered the applicant's experience with corruption in Vietnam, such as paying bribes for traffic offences, but determined this did not amount to significant harm.

Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicant a protection visa, finding that he did not satisfy the criteria under section 36(2)(a) or section 36(2)(aa) of the Migration Act 1958.