1804539 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered the case of a Sri Lankan national seeking a protection visa. The applicant claimed to fear persecution upon return to Sri Lanka due to his Tamil ethnicity and alleged past connections to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), as well as his family's perceived links to the organisation. The AAT was tasked with determining whether Australia owed protection obligations to the applicant.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant had established that he would face a real risk of significant harm if returned to Sri Lanka, thereby meeting the criteria for a protection visa under section 36(2)(a) or the complementary protection criterion under section 36(2)(aa) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). This required the Tribunal to assess the credibility and reliability of the applicant's claims regarding his past experiences with Sri Lankan authorities and his alleged imputed political opinion.

The Tribunal found significant discrepancies in the applicant's written and oral evidence, which raised substantial credibility concerns. Crucially, the applicant declined an invitation to attend a hearing, thereby foregoing the opportunity to present his case directly and have his claims tested. In the absence of this opportunity, and based on the material before it, the Tribunal was not satisfied that the applicant's claims were reliable or that he faced harm as a Tamil male with suspected LTTE links. The Tribunal concluded that the applicant was not a person of adverse concern to the Sri Lankan authorities and therefore did not satisfy the criteria for a protection visa.