2210273 (Refugee)

This matter concerned an application for review of the Department of Home Affairs' decision to refuse a protection visa. The applicant, a man of Nuba ethnicity, had left Sudan in 2001 and arrived in Australia in 2004. Following criminal convictions, his visa was cancelled in 2015, and he has remained in immigration detention since that time. He applied for a protection visa on the grounds of his Nuba ethnicity, imputed political opinion, his status as a returnee from a Western country, and his failure to complete military conscription.

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal was required to determine whether the applicant was of Nuba ethnicity, whether he faced a real chance of serious harm based on his ethnicity and/or imputed political opinion, and whether he faced a real chance of serious harm as a returnee from a Western country or as a person who had not completed military training. The Tribunal also considered whether Australia had protection obligations towards the applicant under the Migration Act 1958 (Cth), which incorporates concepts from the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol.

The Tribunal considered evidence from the Department, independent country sources, and oral evidence from the applicant and his family members. It applied the principles that the applicant bears the responsibility to specify and establish his claim, and that the Tribunal is not obliged to seek out evidence to support the applicant's case. The Tribunal found that the applicant had a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of his nationality and/or imputed political opinion, and that the harm feared was systematic and discriminatory. State protection was not available to the applicant.

The Tribunal remitted the decision under review.