KUALA LUMPUR — An Australian tribunal has overturned a government decision to deny protection to a Malaysian man, ruling that he faces a real risk of persecution if forced to return home because of his sexuality.
The Guardian reported that the case centres on a Malay Muslim man whose application for a protection visa was initially rejected by Australia’s Department of Home Affairs in 2022. Officials claimed he did not provide sufficient evidence to prove he was gay.
But last month, the Administrative Appeals Tribunal accepted the man’s account, declaring him a refugee under Australian law. Tribunal member Li Luo said the man provided a “convincing” testimony of his life in Malaysia, where homosexuality is criminalised under both the penal code and sharia law.
“There is a real chance he would face persecution due to his sexuality if he returned in the foreseeable future,” Luo wrote in the published decision this week. She said such persecution could include prosecution, forced “conversion” practices, or physical harm.
The man told the tribunal he first realised he was attracted to men in high school but kept it hidden until his late teens. In 2016, his brother discovered him with another man, slapped him, and forced him out of the family home.
He said attempts to explain his feelings were rejected by relatives who, he recounted, “were very religious”. Luo said she accepted that the man had been cast out by his family, insulted by peers, and subjected to bullying at work after his sexuality became known.
“As a result of the negativity he experienced, he became introverted and stopped trying to socialise or do anything other than work, which made him feel depressed,” Luo wrote.
The tribunal also noted that in Australia, the man felt accepted and able to live openly as a gay man.
The decision highlighted that Malaysia criminalises same-sex relations, with laws enforced more strictly against Malay Muslims.
The man travelled to Australia in February 2020, applied for a protection visa the same year, and has had no contact with his family since leaving Malaysia. He alleged that his relatives attempted to track him down after he left the country.
The Department of Home Affairs had asked him for more information to support his claims but said he failed to respond and therefore rejected his application.
The tribunal’s ruling now compels the department to reconsider his case, recognising that he satisfies the criteria for protection. — September 28, 2025