1929335 (Refugee)

COURT OR TRIBUNAL

Administrative Appeals Tribunal

DATE FILED (OR FIRST HEARING DATE)

29/06/2022

LITIGATION TYPE

Constitutional and Human Rights / State Accountability

SUBJECT MATTER

Human rights and refugee claims

REVIEW TYPE

Merits review

SUMMARY

REFUGEE – protection visa – Vietnam – religion – Catholic – political opinion – anti-Communist – pro-democracy – involvement in violent confrontation – failed asylum seeker – illegal departure – inconsistent evidence – credibility issues – decisions under review affirmed

I accept that applicant B opposes the current government of Vietnam, although her reasons for this are vague. For the purposes of this decision I accept that she attended an ANZAC Parade in about 2012 or 2013 and that she held an anti-communist flag or stood next to someone holding an anti-communist flag. I also accept that she attended a climate change protest in 2019 and a black lives matter protest in June 2020. However, her evidence regarding her involvement with the father’s Facebook page was vague and unconvincing and I am not satisfied that she was involved in posting items regarding religious violence or other problems Vietnam on that page. Furthermore, I am not satisfied that she has posted items critical of the Vietnamese on her current Facebook page. If she had posted any items of that kind I believe she could and would have provided documentary evidence of this. I accept that she has signed some petitions on change.org. However, the only evidence that she signed petitions which criticised the Vietnamese government or might be viewed as critical of the Vietnamese government is an undated screen shot relating to the a petition to the UN regarding a religious group in Vietnam. In these circumstances and in the absence of a reasonably detailed account of contents of these petitions and how they were critical of the Vietnamese government, I am not satisfied that she has signed more than an extremely small number of petitions relation to Vietnam.

CASE DOCUMENTS

1929335 (Refugee) [2022] AATA 2623 (29 June 2022)