1911392 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered the protection visa application of the main applicant and her son, the secondary applicant. The main applicant claimed that if returned to Papua New Guinea (PNG), she feared harm from her step-mother and father, shame as a single mother, lack of resources to care for her son, and that her son would be taken by the man who raped her. She also asserted that PNG police and services would offer no protection and that there was nowhere she would feel safe.

The Tribunal was required to determine whether the main applicant had a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of membership of a particular social group, and whether Australia had protection obligations towards her and the secondary applicant. Specifically, the Tribunal needed to assess if the main applicant's experiences constituted persecution for reasons of membership of a particular social group, and if adequate state protection or support services were available in PNG.

The Tribunal accepted the main applicant's claims and evidence regarding her past experiences of coercive control, verbal, emotional, and physical abuse by her father and step-mother, and the sexual abuse and rape facilitated by her step-mother. It found that her father and step-mother failed to protect her and that she remained traumatised. The Tribunal concluded that if returned to PNG, the main applicant faced a real and not remote chance of experiencing further abuse and violence from her father and step-mother, potentially facilitated by the man who raped her, and that she would be unable to access adequate state protection or support services. The Tribunal also considered the secondary applicant's ongoing health issues and the risk of gender-based violence and societal discrimination the main applicant would face as a single mother.

The Tribunal remitted the matter for reconsideration with a direction that the main applicant satisfied the criterion in section 36(2)(a) of the Migration Act 1958, and consequently, the secondary applicant satisfied the criterion in section 36(2)(b) of the Act.