1821667 (Refugee)

The applicant, who arrived in Australia in April 2015 as a student, sought review of a delegate of the Minister for Home Affairs' decision to refuse his protection visa application lodged on 30 April 2018. The applicant's claims for protection were based on a stated fear of being killed by individuals chasing his life, asserting that the Vietnamese government would not protect him and that he could not find safety within Vietnam. The delegate had refused the visa, finding the applicant's claims vague and lacking in detail, and was not satisfied that there was a real chance of persecution or significant harm upon return to Vietnam, noting the effectiveness of the Vietnamese policing system.

The court was required to determine whether the applicant met the criteria for a protection visa, specifically whether he was a refugee within the meaning of section 5H of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth) or, alternatively, whether he 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 a Convention reason or a real risk of suffering significant harm as a necessary and foreseeable consequence of removal to Vietnam.

The court reasoned that the onus was on the applicant to specify the particulars of his claim and provide sufficient evidence to establish it, and that the Tribunal was not obliged to make the applicant's case for him. The applicant's claims were found to be lacking in detail, with no specifics provided regarding the identity of those pursuing him, the context of the pursuit, or the reasons for potential harm. Consequently, the court was not satisfied that the applicant had ever come to adverse attention in Vietnam or that there was a real chance of persecution or significant harm upon his return. The court also noted that there was no suggestion the applicant qualified as a member of the same family unit as a person who held a protection visa.

The Tribunal affirmed the delegate's decision not to grant the applicant a protection visa.