1819862 (Refugee)

This matter concerned an application for a protection visa by a Pakistani national. The applicant claimed to fear persecution in Pakistan due to his Hazara ethnicity and Shia religion, as well as his status as a returnee from a Western country. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) was required to determine whether the applicant was a person to whom Australia owed protection obligations under the refugee criterion or on complementary protection grounds.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant faced a real risk of significant harm if returned to Pakistan, specifically in relation to his ethnicity, religion, or status as a failed asylum seeker. This involved assessing the credibility of the applicant's claims and considering whether any feared harm was general to the population or specific to him. The Tribunal also had to consider whether it would be reasonable for the applicant to relocate within Pakistan to an area where he would not face such a risk, or whether he could obtain protection from Pakistani authorities.

The Tribunal found that while the applicant was of Hazara ethnicity and Shia religion, he had not been specifically targeted for these reasons. It did not accept his claims about friends being killed for their religious beliefs, nor did it find his evidence regarding a real risk of harm in his place of residence to be truthful. The Tribunal concluded that random sectarian violence occurring in other parts of Pakistan did not establish a real chance of harm to the applicant in his specific location, and the risk of him being caught in such an incident was remote. Furthermore, the Tribunal rejected the claim that the applicant feared harm as a failed asylum seeker from the West.

Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicant a protection visa, finding that he did not satisfy the relevant criteria under section 36 of the Act.