Sylva Paneth is a citizen of Moflil. Growing up, she always felt that she didn't fit the mold prescribed to her by her society. As she grew older, she came to understand and accept her identity as a woman, despite being assigned male at birth because of her male biological characteristics.
However, in Moflil being transgender was considered illegal. Those who dared to challenge the status quo were met with severe consequences, from public flogging to imprisonment, and even worse, the risk of death.
Sylvar lived her life in fear, hiding her true self from her society. She donned men's clothing and kept her hair short to perform the gender assigned to her.
In 2021, Sylvar obtained a scholarship to undertake a doctoral degree at La Trobe University and travelled to Australia on a student visa which expires at the end of 2025. As Sylvar settled into her new life as a student, she found herself among a diverse community including transwomen and transmen. Supported by new friends, Sylvar decided to come out as a transwoman and discarded "Sylvar", her male-gendered first name, in favour of the name "Silvia". She started wearing women's clothing and grew her hair long.
Once she started living authentically as the woman she truly was, Silvia began to blossom. She joined a student organization advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, using her experiences and her voice to raise awareness about the plight of transgender individuals in intolerant societies such as Moflil.
Silvia wants to remain in Australia because she wishes to continue living publicly as a woman. She is also afraid that her activism as a transwoman in Australia may have come to the attention of Moflil authorities via social media, making it unsafe for her to return. At the suggestion of a friend, she lodged an application for a protection visa which has not yet received a primary stage decision.
Silvia recently came to you for advice. Through your questioning of her, you have discovered the following information. Silvia has provided her Moflilian passport to the Department of Home Affairs in connection with her protection visa application. However, she first altered the passport by pasting a photograph of her female presenting self over the original (male presenting) photograph. She has explained that she wanted decision makers to see her true self. Silvia has also told you that her now deceased grandparents on her mother's side were citizens of Duflaunia. She is aware that this means that she has a right under the Law of Return 1945 (Duflaunia) to emigrate to Duflaunia and to become a Duflaunian citizen after doing so. However, she does not wish to do so because the treatment of transgender individuals in Duflaunia is no better than in Moflil.
Page 10 of 10
Your independent research consulting recent Human Rights Watch reports and the like confirms that both Moflil and Duflaunia are autocracies which criminalize LGBTQ+ people in various ways. The penalties for "cross-dressing" in both countries are public flogging for a first offence and lengthy terms of imprisonment following public flogging for second and subsequent offences. The penalty for engaging in or promoting "unnatural" sexual activity is death.
 

 

What sections of the Migration Act 1958 will be required in order to determine if Silvia is likely to receive a favorable primary stage decision on her protection visa application? Please explain your reason

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

Answer To determine if Silvia is likely to receive a favorable primary stage decision on her protection visa application several sections of the Migra... View the full answer