2203513 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for protection visas by applicants who had departed Australia. The core of the dispute was whether the applicants remained eligible for a protection visa given their departure from the country.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether the applicants satisfied the criterion for a protection visa that they must be a non-citizen in Australia, as stipulated by section 36(2) of the *Migration Act 1958* (Cth). This required the Tribunal to determine the applicants' physical location at the time of the decision.

The Tribunal reasoned that a protection visa can only be granted if the applicant is physically present in Australia. Movement records indicated that the applicants had left Australia in July 2022. The Tribunal notified the applicants of this information and invited them to comment, but no response was received. Consequently, the Tribunal was satisfied that the applicants were not in Australia and therefore did not meet the requirements of section 36(2). As this criterion was not met, the Tribunal concluded it was unnecessary to consider the substantive grounds of their protection claims.

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