Two young men from Pakistan who feared persecution because they were in a homosexual relationship had their refugee claims rejected because a tribunal made “illogical” assumptions about how they would respond to their first time having sex, a court has found. The decision of the Federal Court of Australia to send the case back to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) to be heard again marks the latest chapter in the pair’s seven-year battle to have their sexuality claims believed and to be recognised as refugees. The two men, H and I (their identities are protected), arrived in Melbourne to study in 2009, when H was a teenager and I was in his early 20s. They had been introduced in Pakistan by their fathers who were friends, and they shared a room in Australia. Then, they told the government and later the tribunal, they got together. After a night out in Melbourne for H’s birthday, where they danced and talked about whether they liked girls, they returned home late. “As we were both drunk, we couldn’t control to express our feelings at that night and finally we share all those pleasures which gay couples would do,” H told the tribunal.