1722018 (Refugee)

This matter concerned an application for review of a delegate's decision to refuse the applicant, a citizen of China, a protection visa. The applicant arrived in Australia in March 2017 and applied for the visa in May 2017, alleging that he feared persecution upon return to China due to his opposition to his village head in a local election. The delegate refused the visa on 28 August 2017.

The primary legal issue before the court was whether the applicant had a well-founded fear of persecution for a reason specified in section 5J(1)(a) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth), specifically for a political opinion. This required determining if there was a real chance that the applicant would be persecuted for his political opinion, that this persecution would involve serious harm, and that it would be systematic and discriminatory. The court also considered whether effective protection measures were available to the applicant in China.

The court affirmed the delegate's decision, finding that the applicant's fear of persecution was not well-founded. While acknowledging the applicant's account of being targeted by the village head after supporting a rival candidate, the court found inconsistencies in his evidence. Crucially, the court determined that the actions of the village head, while constituting harassment and causing hardship, did not rise to the level of persecution for a political opinion as defined by the Act. The court concluded that the applicant had not demonstrated a real chance of suffering serious harm that was systematic and discriminatory, nor had he shown that effective protection was unavailable in China.

Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicant a protection visa.