1923143 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal reviewed a decision to cancel the applicant's Safe Haven Enterprise (Subclass 790) visa. The applicant, an Afghan national, had arrived in Australia in March 2013 and was subsequently granted a visa. In his 2016 application for the Safe Haven Enterprise visa, he provided information regarding his identity, personal contacts in Australia, and Australian visa history.

The Tribunal was required to determine whether the applicant had provided incorrect information in his visa application, as alleged in a notice issued under section 107 of the Migration Act 1958. Specifically, the issues concerned whether the applicant had failed to disclose other names he had been known by, personal contacts in Australia, and his prior Australian visa history, thereby contravening section 101(b) of the Act.

The Tribunal found that the applicant had indeed provided incorrect information in his visa application, including failing to disclose that he had been included in a previous Global Special Humanitarian visa application under an alias, failing to declare his paternal cousin as a personal contact in Australia, and incorrectly stating he had never had an Australian visa refused or applied for one outside Australia. However, the Tribunal considered that the incorrect information regarding his alias and cousin had little or no bearing on the decision to grant the visa, which was primarily based on his well-founded fear of persecution as a Hazara Shia. While the applicant knowingly provided incorrect information, which weighed in favour of cancellation, the Tribunal also took into account his efforts to study and undertake an apprenticeship, which weighed against cancellation.

Ultimately, the Tribunal set aside the decision to cancel the applicant's visa and substituted a decision not to cancel it, finding that in all the relevant circumstances, cancellation was not warranted.