1732113 (Refugee)

The applicants, a husband and wife, sought a protection visa. The dispute concerned whether they met the criteria for being owed protection obligations by Australia, specifically whether they were refugees within the meaning of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). The matter came before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal for an independent review of a prior decision that found they were not owed protection.

The Tribunal was required to determine if the applicants held a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, and if such persecution would involve serious harm. This involved assessing the credibility of the applicants' claims regarding their expulsion from Iraq as Faili Kurds, their subsequent statelessness and residence in Iran, and the alleged harassment, detention, and threats they faced in Iran. The Tribunal also had to consider whether effective protection measures were available to them in Iran and whether any claimed fear of persecution was a real chance and related to all areas of a receiving country.

The Tribunal's reasoning focused on the detailed and credible evidence provided by the applicant wife and her brother, contrasting it with what it found to be vague, inconsistent, and irreconcilable evidence from the applicant husband. While acknowledging the applicants were stateless Faili Kurds expelled from Iraq and had faced discrimination and harassment in Iran, the Tribunal ultimately found that the evidence did not establish a well-founded fear of persecution amounting to serious harm. Specifically, it did not accept the husband's claims of detention and beating, nor did it find the wife's harassment by the Basij to be systematic or discriminatory conduct amounting to persecution. The Tribunal concluded that the applicants could continue to subsist in Iran in a similar manner to their previous experience and were not owed protection.

The Tribunal remitted the matter for reconsideration with a direction that the applicants satisfy section 36(2)(a) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth), indicating that it was satisfied Australia had protection obligations towards them.