ZYVZ and Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (Migration)

This matter concerned an appeal by ZYVZ (the Applicant) against a decision by the Minister for Immigration and Border Protection (the Respondent) to refuse to grant a protection visa. The Applicant, a citizen of Sri Lanka, arrived in Australian territorial waters in 2012 and subsequently applied for a Safe Haven Enterprise Visa. While the delegate acknowledged a real risk of significant harm to the Applicant if returned to Sri Lanka, the application was refused on the grounds that the Applicant was ineligible for a protection visa due to serious reasons for considering he had committed serious non-political crimes before entering Australia.

The primary legal issues before the court were whether the crimes for which the Applicant had been convicted by the Sri Lankan High Court constituted serious non-political crimes, and whether there were serious reasons for considering the Applicant had committed a serious non-political crime by facilitating the unlawful entry of other individuals into Australia. The Applicant also raised questions regarding whether his convictions for gang rape and abduction in Sri Lanka warranted such a finding, and whether a contravention of the Sri Lankan Immigrants and Emigrants Act should be considered a serious crime.

The court considered the meaning of "serious non-political crime" in the context of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth), noting that while the Act no longer directly references the 1951 Refugee Convention, the considerations relevant to Article 1F of that Convention remain applicable. The court examined the Applicant's convictions for abduction and gang rape, and his alleged involvement in people smuggling, to determine if they met the threshold for exclusion from protection visa eligibility. The court referenced previous decisions, such as *JSDW and Minister for Immigration and Border Protection* [2017] AATA 2420, which provided guidance on assessing the seriousness of foreign offences.

The court affirmed the delegate's decision, finding that there were serious reasons for considering the Applicant had committed serious non-political crimes. This included his convictions for abduction and gang rape, which were deemed serious crimes, and his contravention of the Sri Lankan Immigrants and Emigrants Act, which was also considered a serious offence in this context. Consequently, the Applicant was found to be ineligible for a protection visa under section 36(2C)(a)(ii) of the *Migration Act 1958*.