1829783 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for protection visas made by applicants who had left Australia. The dispute centred on whether the applicants met the criteria for the grant of a protection visa, specifically the requirement that they be in Australia.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicants satisfied the criterion that they be a non-citizen in Australia, as stipulated by section 36(2) of the relevant Act, for the grant of a protection visa. This criterion is a prerequisite for a visa decision maker to be satisfied that the prescribed criteria for the visa have been met under section 65(1) of the Act.

The Tribunal reasoned that a protection visa can only be granted if the applicant is physically present in Australia. Movement records indicated that the applicants had departed Australia in June 2019. The Tribunal notified the applicants of this information and invited comment. A response was received from their representative stating an inability to contact the applicants. Based on these circumstances, the Tribunal was satisfied that the applicants were not in Australia, and therefore did not meet the criterion under section 36(2). Consequently, it was unnecessary for the Tribunal to consider the substantive grounds of their protection claims.

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