1813034 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) considered an application for a protection visa by individuals who had previously departed Australia and did not currently hold any visas. The applicants had not responded to the Tribunal's invitation to provide comments on the information before it.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicants met the criteria for a protection visa under Australian law, notwithstanding their absence from Australia and failure to engage with the review process. The Tribunal was required to determine if it could proceed with the review and affirm the original decision in the absence of further submissions from the applicants.

The Tribunal affirmed the original decision to refuse the protection visa. It reasoned that the applicants had not provided any information or evidence to demonstrate that they met the criteria for a protection visa. In the absence of any response to the invitation to comment, the Tribunal was entitled to proceed with the review based on the information available to it, which did not support the grant of a protection visa. The Tribunal concluded that the applicants had not discharged their onus of proof.