2113375 (Refugee)

The applicant, a citizen of Bangladesh, sought review of a decision made by the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs concerning his application for a protection visa. The applicant arrived in Australia by sea and was located within the Territory of Ashmore and Cartier Islands. The Minister's delegate had refused the applicant's protection visa application.

The primary legal issues before the court were whether the applicant's second visa application was valid, notwithstanding the operation of section 48A of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth), and whether the section 91K bar to making a further application for a protection visa was applicable. The court was also required to consider the validity of the decision under review.

The court found that the applicant's second visa application was invalid because the section 48A bar had not been lifted. Section 48A prevents a non-citizen who has had a visa application refused from applying for a further visa of a prescribed class, which includes protection visas, unless certain exceptions apply. The court determined that none of the exceptions in section 48A were engaged in this instance. Consequently, the decision under review, which was a refusal of the protection visa application, was substituted with a decision that the application was invalid.