1802886 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered the protection visa application of a Sri Lankan national of Tamil ethnicity. The applicant claimed to fear persecution from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of the Sri Lankan police due to suspected links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and his participation in student protests. The dispute centred on whether the applicant had established a well-founded fear of persecution for a Convention reason, namely ethnicity and imputed political opinion.

The AAT was required to determine the applicant's credibility and the objective reasonableness of his fear of harm. Specifically, the Tribunal had to assess whether the applicant's account of his experiences, including his detention and threats by the CID, his friends' disappearances, and the ongoing search for him by the police, was credible. Furthermore, the AAT needed to consider the relevance and authenticity of documentary evidence, such as news articles, and evaluate whether the general country information about Sri Lanka supported the applicant's claims of a risk of persecution.

The Tribunal drew an unfavourable inference from the applicant's lawful departure from Sri Lanka on his own passport and his late disclosure of certain events, such as social media activity and an alleged hospitalisation. The AAT found that the applicant had not established membership or significant activity within any organisation in Australia. While acknowledging the applicant's ethnicity and the historical context of the conflict in Sri Lanka, the Tribunal concluded that the evidence did not demonstrate a real chance of the applicant suffering harm amounting to persecution. The AAT affirmed the decision under review.