1835094 (Refugee)

This matter concerned an application for a protection visa by an Indonesian citizen who was born in Jakarta. The applicant claimed to have been involved in demonstrations in Indonesia and to have engaged in illegal online gambling. The court was required to determine whether the applicant had a well-founded fear of persecution or faced a real risk of significant harm if removed from Australia to Indonesia.

The central legal issues were whether the applicant met the criteria for a protection visa under section 36(2)(a) of the Migration Act 1958, which requires a well-founded fear of persecution, or under section 36(2)(aa), which requires a real risk of significant harm as a necessary and foreseeable consequence of removal to a receiving country. The court considered the definitions of "refugee," "well-founded fear of persecution," and "significant harm" as provided in the Act, as well as the relevance of Ministerial Direction No. 84 and associated guidelines.

The court found that the applicant, an Indonesian citizen, was a national of the receiving country. It accepted the applicant's evidence that he came to Australia primarily to earn money to support his family. However, the court did not accept the applicant's claims of arrest and detention for participating in demonstrations, noting that these claims were not repeated in his evidence to the Tribunal. Consequently, the court concluded that the applicant did not face a real chance of serious harm due to his political opinion or any other reason covered by the Act, and therefore did not satisfy the refugee criterion.

The Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicant a protection visa, as the applicant did not satisfy the criteria under section 36(2) of the Migration Act 1958.