1811883 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (the Tribunal) considered the case of an applicant seeking a protection visa. The applicant, an Ethiopian national of Harari ethnicity, claimed to fear persecution upon return to Ethiopia due to his past political activities and opposition to the incumbent government. He alleged that he had been subjected to physical violence, denied promotions, lost his job, and had his property and bank accounts confiscated by government officials. The applicant also claimed that his brother was killed by a previous regime and that he himself had been jailed and beaten.

The Tribunal was required to determine whether the applicant met the criteria for a protection visa, specifically whether he qualified as a refugee under section 36(2)(a) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) or, alternatively, met the complementary protection criterion under section 36(2)(aa) of the Act. This involved assessing whether the applicant had a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, or political opinion, or whether there were substantial grounds for believing that he would suffer significant harm as a necessary and foreseeable consequence of removal to Ethiopia.

In its reasoning, the Tribunal accepted that the applicant was an Ethiopian citizen and that Ethiopia was his receiving country. However, the Tribunal concluded that the applicant did not satisfy the criteria for a protection visa. The decision notes that there was no suggestion that the applicant qualified as a member of the same family unit as a person who held a protection visa. Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicant a Protection visa.