1827284 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered the case of an applicant seeking a protection visa. The applicant, a bisexual man from Cameroon, claimed he would face harm if returned to his home country due to his sexual orientation. The AAT was required to determine whether the applicant had a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of membership of a particular social group, specifically as a bisexual man, and whether he would suffer significant harm as a necessary and foreseeable consequence of removal to Cameroon.

The Tribunal considered the applicant's claims, which included being bashed while with another man, being prevented from seeing his child by his child's guardian who threatened to expose him as homosexual, and general societal and legal discrimination against homosexuals in Cameroon. The applicant also claimed he was known to have absconded from an event in Cameroon and had been in the newspaper, making him a target for the government. The Tribunal noted that the applicant's claims remained consistent throughout the process and that his evidence appeared unembellished. The Tribunal also took into account country information regarding the laws and widespread discrimination and violence in Cameroon.

The Tribunal concluded that the applicant's bisexuality constituted a characteristic that was fundamental to his identity and conscience, and that it would not be reasonable to expect him to conceal this characteristic to avoid persecution. Given the evidence of systemic discrimination and violence in Cameroon, the Tribunal found that the applicant had a well-founded fear of persecution. Consequently, the Tribunal remitted the matter for reconsideration with a direction that the applicant satisfies the criterion under s 36(2)(a) of the *Migration Act 1958*.