Recently the Minister for Home Affairs has confirmed he still wants to provide humanitarian visas to 'persecuted' white South African farmers. Irrespective of any political issues for this concern for farmers in South Africa from one racial group, there are a number of legal hurdles they could face in order to meet the strict definition of refugee in Australian law.
Let us consider the (hypothetical) case of Mr Hansie, a farmer from South Africa who is racially a Caucasian. He arrives in Australia as a visitor to visit the Gold Coast for the Commonwealth Games. Once here he seeks advice about lodging a protection visa.
He states that his farm is fairly isolated, and his wife and children live there, together with some local workers. The farm does reasonably well, he and his family are financially well off, and he makes sure his workers are properly paid.
Only last week, two men came to him and threatened him if he did not give the farm to 'African people'. His neighbour was attacked the week before by, Hansie thinks, the same men; he was left badly injured and is now in hospital. Hansie contacted the local police but they said they could do nothing because they were under-resourced, and advised him to get his own private security.
In order to meet the definition of refugee in Australia, Hansie must prove he has a well-founded fear of persecution for one or more of the five Refugee Convention reasons — race, religion, nationality, particular social group or political opinion.
There are other hurdles in Australia — such as s36(3) which prevents a grant of a protection visa if the person has a right to enter another country even temporarily. So if Hansie had a visitor visa for the UK in his passport, because his brother lives in London, his case could be refused just for that reason.
Let us assume his UK visitor visa has expired. The fear of persecution needs a link to the Refugee Convention — and here it could be race (Caucasian), maybe imputed political opinion (against the political groups wanting to forcibly acquire farms for redistribution), and maybe a particular social group of white or Caucasian farmers.
"It would be difficult to argue that Hansie could not work in some other occupation, even if he needs training or reskilling, if that meant he would not be targeted."
The race argument needs evidence that the main reason he was threatened was his