1913159 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for protection visas by applicants from China. The dispute arose because the applicants had departed Australia, and the Tribunal was reviewing a decision not to grant them protection visas.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicants met 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 in Australia. Movement records indicated that the applicants had left Australia in March 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 threshold requirement was not met, the Tribunal found it unnecessary to consider the substantive grounds of their protection claims. The Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicants protection visas.