1809756 (Refugee)

The applicant, a citizen of China, sought a protection visa. The primary decision to refuse the visa was made by the Department of Home Affairs. Subsequently, the applicant's application to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) for review of this decision was dismissed due to their failure to attend the scheduled hearing. The applicant did not apply for reinstatement of their application within the prescribed 14-day period following the dismissal. The matter came before Member Catherine Carney-Orsborn of the AAT for review of the dismissal decision.

The central legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the dismissal of the applicant's application for review was to be confirmed, and consequently, whether the decision under review was to be affirmed. This required the Tribunal to consider the procedural requirements following a failure to attend a hearing and the applicant's subsequent inaction.

The Tribunal's reasoning was based on the explicit provisions of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth) and the Migration Regulations. As the applicant failed to attend the hearing and did not make an application for reinstatement within the stipulated 14-day timeframe, the Tribunal was mandated to confirm the decision to dismiss the application. This procedural failure meant that the merits of the original protection visa refusal were not considered by the Tribunal.

The Tribunal confirmed the decision to dismiss the application.