2216663 (Refugee)

The applicant, a citizen of Pakistan, sought review of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal's decision to affirm the delegate's refusal to grant him a protection visa. The Federal Circuit Court had previously remitted the matter back to the Tribunal for reconsideration, finding that the Tribunal had failed to adequately consider the applicant's contentions regarding his inability to relocate due to caring responsibilities for his mother and brother near Karachi, and the impact of COVID-19 restrictions on freedom of movement. The Tribunal was required to determine whether the applicant was a person in respect of whom Australia owed protection obligations.

The Tribunal considered the applicant's claims of persecution based on his Shia Muslim faith, his involvement with the Imamia Students Organisation (ISO), his role as a Noha reciter, his Mohajir ethnicity, his interfaith relationship with a Sunni girl, and his mental health issues. The Tribunal also had to assess the reasonableness of internal relocation within Pakistan, drawing guidance from High Court judgments on the matter. The Tribunal was obliged to continue the proceeding from where it left off, considering all previously obtained material and evidence, and determining the review based on the facts as they presented themselves at the time of its determination.

The Tribunal affirmed the decision under review. It accepted that the applicant was a Shia Muslim who had been involved with the ISO and recited Noha, but found that his membership and activities did not distinguish him from other Shia students. The Tribunal rejected the claim that the applicant had a high profile as a Shia Muslim in Pakistan, and that the incidents he described, including a bomb blast and sectarian violence at a hospital, were personally targeted at him. The Tribunal noted that the applicant's visits to his family in Karachi in 2013 and 2015, during which he stayed at a family home and suffered no harm, supported the conclusion that he was not a target of the Taliban in Karachi. The Tribunal also found that the applicant would not experience sectarian violence himself in Karachi.