An Iranian Kurdish man has failed in his bid to be declared a refugee on grounds that getting temporarily locked up on return to Iran isn't sufficient harm to engage Australia's protection obligations.
The High Court held that being detained for an hour or two on arrival at the airport in his home country wasn't at the same level of seriousness as the prospect of getting killed.
The Iranian-born man, aged somewhere between 26 and 30 and identified only as WZAPN, arrived on an asylum seeker boat in 2010 and applied for refugee status.
His case centred on fear of harm from repeated periods of detention and interrogation at the hands of the Basij, a paramilitary group tolerated by the government of Iran.
Detention lasted from two to 48 hours. He never claimed to have been physically harmed but was abused and denied food and water.
He was variously described as a stateless or undocumented Faili Kurd living in Iran.
His initial application for refugee protection was dismissed on grounds that any harm on return to Iran would be a consequence of being undocumented, not through persecution as a member of a particular social group.
High Court judges agreed, saying the Refugee Convention and Australian law allowed asylum protection to protect from persecution involving serious harm inflicted by the violation of fundamental rights and freedoms.
In a similar case, the High Court rejected a claim by a Tamil man that he would face persecution if returned to Sri Lanka.
He, too, arrived by boat in 2010, with his application rejected on grounds that there was no indication he was at risk of significant harm.
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