2100832 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for a protection visa by an applicant from India. The applicant had departed Australia, and the Tribunal sought to ascertain their current location and invited them to comment on information suggesting they were no longer in Australia.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicant met the criteria for a protection visa, specifically the requirement under section 36(2) of the Act that the applicant must be a non-citizen in Australia. The Tribunal also had to determine if it was necessary to consider the substantive grounds of the protection claim given the applicant's departure from Australia.

The Tribunal reasoned that movement records indicated the applicant had left Australia in April 2022. Following this, the Tribunal notified the applicant of this information and invited them to respond by 1 March 2023. As no response was received by the Tribunal, it was satisfied that the applicant was not in Australia. Consequently, the Tribunal concluded that the applicant did not satisfy the criterion under section 36(2) of the Act and therefore could not be granted a protection visa. Having reached this conclusion, the Tribunal deemed it unnecessary to consider the applicant's substantive case for the visa.

The Tribunal affirmed the decision not to grant the applicant a protection visa.