2007111 (Refugee)

The applicant, a citizen of Myanmar of mixed Indian and Bamar heritage, sought a protection visa. The applicant claimed she feared persecution upon return to Myanmar due to her political opinions against the military dictatorship, her participation in anti-coup protests in Australia, and her ancestry. The delegate refused her visa application, finding her concerns about economic hardship and COVID-19 were not refugee-related, and that there was insufficient information regarding her political opinion to establish a well-founded fear of serious harm. The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (Tribunal) reviewed this decision.

The central legal issues before the Tribunal were whether the applicant had a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of political opinion or membership of a particular social group, and whether Myanmar was her receiving country for the purposes of assessing her protection claims. The Tribunal was required to consider the applicant's claims in light of the definitions of "refugee" and "well-founded fear of persecution" under the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth), including the requirement that the fear must relate to all areas of the receiving country and that the persecution must involve serious harm.

The Tribunal reasoned that the applicant's claims regarding her political opinion, her family's history of opposition to the military regime, and her participation in protests in Australia, when considered alongside her mixed racial background and the documented discrimination faced by individuals of Indian descent in Myanmar, established a well-founded fear of persecution. The Tribunal found that the applicant's fear was not merely general hardship but stemmed from specific grounds outlined in section 5J(1)(a) of the Act. It also considered that the applicant's behaviour in Australia should be disregarded unless she could demonstrate it was not for the purpose of strengthening her claim. The Tribunal concluded that Myanmar was the applicant's receiving country and that she faced a real chance of persecution for reasons of political opinion and potentially as a member of a particular social group.

The Tribunal was satisfied that the applicant met the criteria for a protection visa under section 36(2)(a) of the *Migration Act*. Consequently, the Tribunal remitted the matter for reconsideration with a direction that the applicant satisfies section 36(2)(a).