2009151 (Refugee)

This matter concerned an application for review of a decision by the Department of Home Affairs to refuse a Protection visa. The applicant, a national of Vietnam, arrived in Australia in 2011 and applied for the visa in January 2020. The applicant's claims for protection were based on his father's arrest and imprisonment for supporting a dissident political group, "Respect Human Rights for Vietnam," which had connections to "Viet Van," a group listed as dissident by the Vietnamese Communist Party. The applicant asserted that upon return to Vietnam, he would be wrongly accused of involvement with this group, leading to arrest and torture, and that the authorities would not provide protection.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether Australia owed protection obligations to the applicant under sections 36(2)(a) and 36(2)(aa) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). This required determining if the applicant met the refugee criterion, or alternatively, if there were substantial grounds for believing that as a necessary and foreseeable consequence of removal to Vietnam, he faced a real risk of suffering significant harm, as defined by the Act. The Tribunal was also required to consider relevant Ministerial Directions, Refugee Law Guidelines, Complementary Protection Guidelines, and country information.

The Tribunal accepted the applicant's identity as a Vietnamese national. In its consideration, the Tribunal noted that the applicant had not personally experienced harm in Vietnam. While the applicant claimed he would be wrongly accused and persecuted upon return due to his father's political activities, the Tribunal found that the evidence presented did not establish a real risk of significant harm or that Australia had protection obligations towards him. The Tribunal concluded that the decision under review should be affirmed.