2206848 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (the Tribunal) reviewed a decision by a delegate of the Minister for Home Affairs to refuse to grant protection visas to the applicants. The applicant claimed to fear harm from her estranged husband in Tonga, citing his drug use, accusations of infidelity, and threats of violence, and asserted that Tongan authorities could not protect her. The applicant also indicated an intention to seek ministerial intervention as a carer for an Australian resident relative.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant met the criteria for a protection visa under section 36(2)(a) or (aa) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). This required the Tribunal to determine if the applicant was a refugee with a well-founded fear of persecution, or if there were substantial grounds to believe that, as a necessary and foreseeable consequence of removal to Tonga, she faced a real risk of suffering significant harm. The Tribunal also considered the applicant's responsibility to provide sufficiently detailed claims and evidence to substantiate her case.

The Tribunal reasoned that the applicant had not provided sufficient detail regarding her relationship with her husband, its current status, or any recent contact or changes in circumstances. It emphasised that the mere assertion of a fear does not establish its genuineness or that it is well-founded, nor does a claim of significant harm automatically establish such a risk. The Tribunal concluded that it was not satisfied that the applicant had established that she was a person in respect of whom Australia had protection obligations, as she had failed to provide adequate information to satisfy the statutory elements of her claim.

Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the delegate's decision not to grant the applicants protection visas, finding that they did not satisfy the criteria under section 36(2)(a) or (aa) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth), and therefore could not satisfy the criteria under section 36(2)(b) or (c) either.