2202886 (Refugee)

This matter concerned an application for judicial review of a decision by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) to affirm the Minister's delegate's refusal to grant the applicant, a citizen of China, a protection visa. The applicant had arrived in Australia in April 2017 and applied for a protection visa in July 2017. The delegate refused the visa on 2 November 2017, after the applicant failed to attend a scheduled interview. Subsequent applications to the AAT for review of this decision were dismissed for being lodged outside the prescribed timeframe. The applicant then sought judicial review in the Federal Circuit Court, which, by consent, quashed the first AAT decision and remitted the matter for redetermination due to jurisdictional error concerning notification of the time limit for review. The Federal Circuit Court dismissed the judicial review of the second AAT decision.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal on remittal was 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 had protection obligations towards him under section 36(2)(a) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). The applicant's claims for protection were based on his father's involvement in village head elections in China, his father's fight against bribery, and subsequent alleged assault by police and imprisonment of his father, and the applicant's own alleged injury by police.

The Tribunal considered the applicant's protection visa application form and supporting statement, which detailed his father's political activities and the alleged persecution of his family. The Tribunal also had regard to the most recent DFAT report on China. After considering all the material, the Tribunal found that the applicant did not satisfy the criteria for a protection visa under section 36(2)(b) or (c) of the Act.

The Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicant a protection visa.