2402927 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal reviewed a decision not to grant a protection visa to an applicant from Vanuatu. The applicant's primary motivation for seeking the visa was to continue working and earning money in Australia, rather than to seek protection from harm. While the Tribunal accepted the applicant's account of his life and experiences as truthful, it found no evidence of him having experienced targeted serious or significant harm in Vanuatu, either as a result of relationship issues or otherwise.

The Tribunal was required to determine whether the applicant met the criteria for a protection visa under section 36 of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). This involved assessing whether the applicant was a refugee due to a well-founded fear of persecution, or whether Australia had protection obligations on complementary protection grounds due to a real risk of suffering significant harm upon removal. The Tribunal also considered whether the applicant qualified as a member of the same family unit as a person who met these criteria.

In its reasoning, the Tribunal referred to the definition of a refugee and the requirements for a well-founded fear of persecution, which necessitates a real chance of persecution for specific reasons such as race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion. It also considered the complementary protection criterion, which requires substantial grounds for believing there is a real risk of significant harm upon removal. The Tribunal noted that while climate change and disasters can exacerbate existing risks, they do not, in themselves, create a legal basis for refugee status. Applying these principles, the Tribunal found no evidence that the applicant had experienced persecution or faced a real risk of significant harm, nor that he was a member of the family unit of someone who did.

Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicant a protection visa, as he did not satisfy the relevant criteria under section 36(2)(b) or (c) of the *Migration Act 1958*.