1906278 (Refugee)

The applicant, a national of Fiji, sought review of a decision not to grant him a protection visa. The dispute centred on whether he met the criteria for such a visa, either as a refugee or on complementary protection grounds. The applicant had arrived in Australia in June 2017 and lodged his protection visa application in March 2018. After lodging the review application, he provided evidence of his marriage to an Australian citizen and his cohabitation with her and her two children.

The primary legal issues before the Tribunal were whether the applicant had a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, such that Australia owed him protection obligations under the refugee criterion (s 36(2)(a) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth)). Alternatively, if he did not meet the refugee criterion, the Tribunal had to consider whether there were substantial grounds for believing that, as a necessary and foreseeable consequence of his removal to Fiji, there was a real risk he would suffer significant harm (s 36(2)(aa), the complementary protection criterion).

The Tribunal found that the applicant had not established a well-founded fear of persecution. His claims in the protection visa application were largely unsubstantiated and, at the hearing, he indicated that the information provided in his application was not true and had been written by an unknown individual. Furthermore, the Tribunal was not satisfied that a separation from his wife and her children would amount to serious or significant harm as contemplated by the Act. The applicant's mother, brother, and sister resided in Fiji, and there was no evidence suggesting he would face persecution or significant harm upon return.

Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicant a protection visa, finding that he did not satisfy any of the criteria under s 36(2) of the *Migration Act 1958*.