1732502 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for a protection visa made by individuals who had departed Australia. The core of the dispute revolved around the applicants' physical presence in Australia at the time of the decision.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicants met the criterion for a protection visa that they must be a non-citizen *in* Australia, as stipulated by section 36(2) of the relevant Act. This required the Tribunal to determine the applicants' location at the time of the decision-making process.

The Tribunal's reasoning was based on movement records indicating that the applicants had left Australia in May 2020. The Tribunal notified the applicants of this information and invited them to provide comment, but no response was received. Consequently, the Tribunal was satisfied that the applicants were not in Australia, and therefore, they failed to satisfy the essential criterion under section 36(2) of the Act. As this criterion was not met, the Tribunal concluded it was unnecessary to consider the substantive grounds of their protection claims.

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