2110185 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered the protection visa applications of two applicants from Myanmar. The applicants claimed they feared persecution upon return to Myanmar due to their ethnicity as Karen people, alleging mistreatment by military officers and pressure from drug syndicates. They asserted that the Myanmar government was unwilling and unable to offer them protection.

The Tribunal was required to determine whether the applicants had a well-founded fear of persecution for one or more of the five prescribed reasons under the Migration Act 1958. If not, it needed to assess whether there were substantial grounds for believing that, as a necessary and foreseeable consequence of their removal to Myanmar, they faced a real risk of suffering significant harm. The Tribunal also considered the applicants' claims regarding their membership in a particular social group and imputed political opinion.

The Tribunal concluded that the matter should be remitted for reconsideration. While acknowledging the applicants' claims of past harm and fear of future persecution, the Tribunal found that certain aspects of their claims, particularly concerning their visits to Thailand and subsequent returns without issue, did not entirely discount their ethnicity as relevant to their claims as forced returnees. The Tribunal noted that the applicants did not appear to have experienced serious or significant harm, nor did they express urgent or deeply held fears of being a person of interest. However, the Tribunal's decision to remit indicates that further consideration of the evidence and legal principles was warranted.