1833941 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered the protection visa application of a family of five, where the primary applicant was a Shia Muslim from Pakistan. The dispute centred on the applicant's claim that he feared persecution in Pakistan due to his religious beliefs and his involvement with a Shia mosque, the Qasr-e-Abu Taleb Mosque. The AAT was required to determine whether the applicant had a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of religion, and whether Australia had protection obligations towards him under the Migration Act 1958.

The Tribunal's reasoning focused on assessing the applicant's claims of past persecution and the current country conditions in Pakistan for Shia Muslims. While acknowledging that the applicant and his family had experienced sectarian violence and threats, the AAT found that many of these incidents were opportunistic criminal acts or general sectarian violence rather than targeted persecution based on his Shia faith. The Tribunal also considered country information indicating a significant reduction in sectarian violence in Pakistan since the period of heightened conflict between 2009 and 2015. Crucially, the AAT determined that the applicant could reasonably modify his behaviour by ceasing his specific support for the Qasr-e-Abu Taleb Mosque and attending a different, closer Shia mosque, thereby avoiding the targeted threats he feared from local Sunni militants.

Ultimately, the Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicants protection visas. It concluded that the applicants did not satisfy the criteria for a protection visa under section 36(2)(a) of the Migration Act 1958, as they did not have a well-founded fear of persecution. Furthermore, the AAT found that Australia did not have protection obligations under the complementary protection criterion in section 36(2)(aa), as there was no substantial ground for believing that a real risk of significant harm would be a necessary and foreseeable consequence of their removal to Pakistan.