1814583 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered the case of an applicant seeking a protection visa, who had arrived in Australia in August 2013 and applied for the visa in July 2017. The applicant's initial claims were based on witnessing harm to friends in Vietnam and being told by her parents that she would be targeted and detained if she returned due to her association with these friends who had demonstrated against the Vietnamese government's handling of the Formosa chemical spill. The applicant had become an unlawful non-citizen for approximately three years after failing to return to Vietnam.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether there were substantial grounds for believing that the applicant faced a real risk of suffering significant harm, or a real chance of suffering serious harm, as a necessary and foreseeable consequence of being removed to Vietnam, and thus whether Australia had protection obligations towards her under the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). This required the Tribunal to assess the applicant's claims in light of updated country information and evidence that had become available since the original delegate's assessment.

The Tribunal reasoned that it was obliged to conduct a fresh hearing on the merits of the applicant's case, considering the most current information available. It accepted evidence that the applicant had become a full member of the Viet Tan organisation, an opposition group advocating for democracy in Vietnam, and had actively participated in its social media activities, expressing anti-government sentiment. The Tribunal noted that political opposition parties are illegal in Vietnam, and Viet Tan was declared a terrorist organisation in 2016, with individuals involved facing lengthy prison sentences. The Tribunal found that the applicant's increased involvement with Viet Tan, particularly her husband's leadership role within the organisation, raised her political profile and placed her at risk of persecution.

The Tribunal concluded that the applicant met the definition of a refugee and the criteria for a protection visa under section 36(2)(a) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). Consequently, the Tribunal remitted the matter for reconsideration with a direction that the applicant satisfies the criteria for a protection visa.