1833464 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered a dispute concerning the cancellation of a protection visa held by an applicant from Afghanistan. The Minister had sought to cancel the visa under section 116(1AA) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth), based on concerns about the applicant's identity. The applicant contended that the notice of cancellation was invalid due to insufficient particulars being provided.

The Tribunal was required to determine whether the Minister had established grounds for cancellation under section 116(1AA) of the Act, specifically regarding the applicant's identity. This involved assessing the degree of satisfaction required for such a finding, considering the gravity of cancelling a protection visa, and evaluating whether the notice of cancellation issued under section 119 of the Act was valid. A key issue was whether the applicant had been provided with sufficient particulars of the grounds for cancellation and the information upon which those grounds appeared to exist.

The Tribunal applied the principles from *Sun v Minister for Immigration and Border Protection* and *Sullivan v Civil Aviation Safety Authority*, emphasising that establishing a ground for cancellation cannot be done lightly or on inexact proofs, and that greater caution is warranted when a fact is centrally relevant to the decision. The Tribunal found that the applicant was not provided with forensic facial comparison reports or photographs that purportedly linked him to other visa applications. This failure to provide material upon which the decision was based was held to be procedurally unfair, denying the applicant a meaningful opportunity to respond. Consequently, the Tribunal was not satisfied that there was sufficient doubt about the applicant's identity to establish the ground for cancellation under section 116(1AA).

The Tribunal set aside the decision to cancel the applicant's Subclass 866 (Protection) visa and substituted a decision not to cancel the visa.