1820580 (Refugee)

The applicants sought review of a decision to refuse their protection visa applications. The first applicant claimed she feared persecution in Albania due to her father and brother threatening to kill her for defying their demand that she leave her husband after discovering he had a sexual encounter with another man. She asserted that this defiance was a matter of honour for her family, leading to threats of death and the potential for a blood feud, and that Albanian authorities would not provide protection. The second applicant was the first applicant's husband.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicants were persons in respect of whom Australia had protection obligations under either the Refugee Convention or the complementary protection criterion. This required determining if the first applicant had a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of membership of a particular social group, or if there were substantial grounds for believing that removal from Australia would result in a real risk of significant harm.

The Tribunal considered the first applicant's claims regarding threats from her father and brother, her fear of honour killing and blood feuds, and the alleged lack of state protection in Albania. It also noted the applicants' claims of marriage and their residence in [Country 1] as permanent residents prior to arriving in Australia. The Tribunal's assessment focused on whether these circumstances met the criteria for a protection visa as defined by section 36 of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth) and relevant guidelines.

Ultimately, the Tribunal was not satisfied that the applicants were persons in respect of whom Australia had protection obligations. Consequently, they did not satisfy the criteria for a protection visa, and the decision under review was affirmed.