1806910 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered an application for a protection visa by individuals from Vietnam. The applicants failed to provide any oral or documentary evidence in support of their claims and did not attend the hearing scheduled for their application.

The central legal issue before the AAT was whether the applicants had discharged their onus of proof to establish that they met the criteria for a protection visa, notwithstanding their failure to present any evidence or attend the review hearing.

The AAT affirmed the decision under review, finding that the applicants had not satisfied the burden of proof required to establish their claims for protection. In the absence of any evidence, the Tribunal was unable to make the necessary findings of fact to support an grant of a protection visa. The Tribunal applied the principle that an applicant bears the onus of proving their case, and this onus cannot be discharged without the presentation of credible evidence.