1927381 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for a protection visa made by applicants who had departed Australia. The Tribunal was required to determine whether the applicants met the prescribed criteria for the grant of a protection visa.

A key 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. This criterion is a prerequisite for the grant of a protection visa.

The Tribunal's reasoning focused on the applicants' physical presence in Australia. Movement records indicated that the applicants had left Australia in March 2022. The Tribunal notified the applicants of this information and invited comment, but no response was received. Based on this evidence, the Tribunal was satisfied that the applicants were no longer in Australia. Consequently, they failed to meet the criterion under section 36(2) and were therefore ineligible for a protection visa. The Tribunal concluded that it was unnecessary to consider the substantive grounds of their protection claims.

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