1815929 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for protection visas 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 Tribunal was required to determine whether the applicants met the criteria for a protection visa, specifically the requirement that an applicant must be a non-citizen present in Australia. This involved assessing whether the applicants' departure from Australia rendered them ineligible for the visa.

The Tribunal's reasoning was based on section 36(2) of the relevant Act, which stipulates that a protection visa can only be granted if the applicant is in Australia. Movement records indicated that the applicants had left Australia in April 2019. The Tribunal had communicated this information to the applicants, inviting comment, but received no response. Consequently, the Tribunal was satisfied that the applicants were not in Australia and therefore did not meet the criterion under section 36(2). As this essential criterion was not met, the Tribunal found it unnecessary to consider the substantive claims for protection.

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