1728588 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal reviewed a decision to cancel the protection visa of a stateless Faili Kurd who arrived in Australia as an irregular maritime arrival. The applicant claimed to be from Iran and stated she was stateless. The Minister's delegate had cancelled the visa on the grounds that the applicant had failed to provide correct information regarding her identity and statelessness, thereby contravening sections 101(a) and 101(b) of the Migration Act 1958 (Cth).

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant had provided incorrect information in her visa application concerning her identity and statelessness, as alleged in the notice of intention to cancel her visa. This required the Tribunal to determine if the applicant was indeed a stateless Faili Kurd from Iran, as she claimed, or if she had withheld significant details about her true identity. The Tribunal also considered whether the notice of intention to cancel, issued under section 107 of the Act, complied with the statutory requirements.

The Tribunal found that the notice of intention to cancel the visa complied with the statutory requirements and that the delegate had reached the necessary state of mind to engage section 107. However, the Tribunal concluded that the applicant had not been known by any other name and was, in fact, a stateless Faili Kurd from Iran. Consequently, the Tribunal determined that the applicant had not provided incorrect information as described in the notice.

Accordingly, the Tribunal set aside the decision under review and substituted a decision not to cancel the applicant's Subclass 866 (Protection) visa.