2215120 (Refugee)

The applicants, a family from Pakistan, sought protection visas in Australia. The parents, SA and AA, along with their son JAM, arrived in Australia in 2010. Their children KAM and DZM were subsequently born in Australia. The family applied for protection visas in 2015 and 2018 respectively, but these applications were refused. The applicants sought judicial review of the Tribunal's decision to affirm the refusals, which was initially successful, leading to the matter being remitted to the Tribunal.

The court was required to determine whether the applicants met the refugee criterion under s 36(2)(a) or the complementary protection criterion under s 36(2)(aa) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth). This involved assessing whether there were substantial grounds for believing that the applicants faced a real risk of suffering significant harm as a necessary and foreseeable consequence of returning to Pakistan. The court also had to consider the applicant's responsibility to provide sufficient evidence to establish their claims.

The court found that there were not sufficient grounds to be satisfied that the applicants faced a real chance of being accused of blasphemy, nor that they were perceived to be "Westernised" in a way that would place them at risk. Despite these findings, the court noted strong compassionate circumstances, particularly concerning the fourth-named applicant, KAM, who is now an Australian citizen. Consequently, the court affirmed the decision not to grant the protection visas but referred the matter to the Minister for ministerial intervention due to these compassionate circumstances, which if not recognised, would result in serious, ongoing, and irreversible harm and continuing hardship to an Australian citizen.