1834774 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for a protection visa made by applicants from China. The dispute arose because the applicants had departed Australia, leading to a decision under review to refuse the visa.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicants satisfied the criteria for a protection visa, specifically the requirement that an applicant must be a non-citizen *in* Australia.

The Tribunal reasoned that under section 36(2) of the relevant Act, a protection visa can only be granted if the applicant is physically present in Australia. Movement records indicated that the applicants had left Australia in May 2020. The Tribunal notified the applicants of this information and invited comment, but no response was received. 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 criterion was not met, the Tribunal found it unnecessary to consider the substantive grounds of the protection claims.

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