2318056 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered the case of an applicant from the Solomon Islands who sought a protection visa. The applicant claimed she feared harm from natural disasters, particularly cyclones, and also from her former partner in the Solomon Islands due to her failure to send him money. The Tribunal was required to determine whether the applicant met the criteria for a protection visa, specifically the "refugee" criterion or the "complementary protection" criterion.

The Tribunal reasoned that the applicant's fear of harm from natural disasters did not satisfy the refugee criterion, as such fears are not typically grounds for persecution under the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). While acknowledging the applicant's stated fear of her former partner, the Tribunal found this claim to be vague and unsupported by evidence. Furthermore, the Tribunal noted that the Solomon Islands has community-based disaster preparedness measures in place, which mitigated the applicant's generalised fear of natural disasters. The Tribunal concluded that the applicant did not demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons outlined in the Act, nor did she establish substantial grounds for believing she would suffer significant harm as a necessary and foreseeable consequence of removal.

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