1702057 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for protection visas by two applicants who had departed Australia. The core of the dispute was whether the applicants met the eligibility criteria for a protection visa, specifically the requirement of being physically present in Australia at the time of the decision.

The Tribunal was required to determine whether the applicants satisfied the criterion for a protection visa that they be a non-citizen in Australia, as stipulated by section 36(2) of the relevant Act. This involved assessing whether the applicants were indeed in Australia at the time the decision was to be made.

The Tribunal's reasoning was based on movement records indicating that both applicants had left Australia, one in August 2018 and the other in August 2017. The Tribunal had notified the applicants of this information and invited them to comment, but no response was received. Consequently, the Tribunal was satisfied that the applicants were not in Australia, and therefore did not meet the essential criterion under section 36(2) for the grant of a protection visa. As this fundamental requirement was not met, the Tribunal found it unnecessary to consider the substantive grounds of their protection claims.

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