REFUGEE PROTECTION - Who constitute - Convention refugees - Persons in need of protection - Persecution

Law360 Canada (October 25, 2023, 6:31 AM EDT) -- Application by Sumonu for judicial review of a decision finding that she was neither a Convention refugee nor a person in need of protection. Sumonu was a citizen of Nigeria. She left Nigeria for Canada on a visitor visa. She claimed refugee protection on the basis that she feared persecution from her in-laws for being infertile, and from Nigerian society for being HIV-positive. The Refugee Protection Division (RPD) dismissed Sumonu’s claim for refugee protection. The RPD found that despite being HIV-positive, the applicant failed to demonstrate that she would be a victim of discrimination amounting to persecution in Nigeria for that reason. Further, the RPD observed that subparagraph 97(1)(b)(iv) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) did not cover risks which were caused by the inability of a country to provide adequate health and medical care to an applicant. The RPD also held that Sumonu had a viable internal flight alternative (IFA) in Port Harcourt. On appeal, the Refugee Appeal Division (RAD) found that the RPD did not err when concluding that the applicant would not face a serious possibility of persecution in Nigeria as a result of her HIV-positive status. Sumonu submitted that the RAD erred in requiring her to prove that she suffered harm in the past, and wrongly focused on the availability of treatment for HIV in Nigeria....
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