2014325 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for a protection visa by applicants from the Philippines who were not in Australia. The dispute concerned the eligibility of the applicants for a protection visa given their location outside the migration zone.

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 also had to determine whether it was appropriate to make a decision without inviting the applicants to a hearing, given their absence from Australia and failure to respond to a request for information.

The Tribunal reasoned that under section 36(2) of the relevant Act, a protection visa can only be granted to a non-citizen who is in Australia. Evidence indicated that the applicants had departed Australia and were not present within the migration zone. The Tribunal had notified the applicants of this information and invited them to comment, but no response was received. Applying section 424A of the Act, the Tribunal concluded it was appropriate to proceed with a decision without a hearing. As the applicants were not in Australia, they did not satisfy the fundamental criterion for a protection visa, rendering it unnecessary to consider the substantive grounds of their protection claim.

Consequently, the Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicants a protection visa.