2205189 (Refugee)

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered the case of an applicant seeking a protection visa. The core dispute concerned the applicant's nationality and statelessness, with the applicant claiming to be a stateless person of Indian ethnicity and Muslim religion born in Myanmar, while the delegate found the applicant to be a Burmese citizen of an ethnic group eligible for citizenship. The Tribunal was tasked with determining whether the applicant qualified for protection under the 'refugee' criterion or complementary protection grounds.

The legal issues before the Tribunal included whether the applicant was stateless, as claimed, or a citizen of Myanmar, and consequently, whether Australia owed protection obligations to the applicant. This involved assessing the applicant's evidence regarding their inability to obtain official identity documents, such as a birth certificate, Household Registration List (HRL), or Citizenship Scrutiny Card (CSC), due to their parents' statelessness. The Tribunal also had to consider the relevance of country information regarding the citizenship status of ethnic minorities in Myanmar and the implications of the applicant's long residence in Australia.

The Tribunal acknowledged the applicant's claims of statelessness, noting that their grandparents migrated from India and their parents were born in Myanmar but were unable to obtain citizenship. The Tribunal found that the delegate's reasoning for rejecting the claim of statelessness, particularly concerning the applicant's ability to attend high school without a CSC and the mandatory nature of an HRL, did not adequately address the applicant's evidence. The Tribunal also considered a section 438 certificate, finding its gist had been disclosed to the applicant. Ultimately, the Tribunal was satisfied that Australia had protection obligations towards the applicant under section 36(2)(a) of the Migration Act 1958. The Tribunal remitted the matter for reconsideration with a direction that the applicant satisfies section 36(2)(a).