1606549 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for a protection visa by applicants from India. The dispute arose because the applicants had departed Australia, and the Tribunal was unable to grant them a protection visa while they were offshore.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicants satisfied the criteria for a protection visa, specifically the requirement that an applicant must be a non-citizen *in* Australia. The Tribunal also considered whether it was necessary to assess the substantive grounds of the protection claim given the applicants' departure from Australia.

The Tribunal reasoned that under section 36(2) of the relevant Act, a protection visa can only be granted if the applicant is in Australia. Movement records indicated that the applicants had left Australia in May 2018. The Tribunal communicated this information to the applicants, inviting them to respond by a specified date. As no response was received, the Tribunal was satisfied that the applicants were not in Australia and therefore did not meet the criterion under section 36(2). Consequently, the Tribunal concluded that it was unnecessary to consider the substantive merits of their protection claims.

The Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicants protection visas.