Adam and Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs (Citizenship)

This matter concerned an application for Australian citizenship by conferral made by Ms Adam, which was refused by the Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs. The primary issue for determination by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal was whether Ms Adam was of good character, as required by the *Australian Citizenship Act 2007* (Cth).

The Tribunal was required to assess whether Ms Adam possessed the requisite moral qualities for citizenship, specifically considering inconsistencies in her statements regarding her past experiences, particularly her time at the Sawa national military training centre in Eritrea. The Tribunal had to determine if these inconsistencies, and any false statements made in her application and sworn evidence, amounted to deficiencies in her moral character sufficient to deny her citizenship.

The Tribunal found that while there were some inconsistencies in Ms Adam's accounts of her education, these were not material and were likely due to translation issues and the complexities of the Eritrean education system. However, the Tribunal concluded that Ms Adam had provided a false answer to an important question in her official application forms and maintained this false answer in her sworn evidence during the review proceedings. Despite acknowledging that the military training Ms Adam participated in was recognised as amounting to a form of slavery and had caused her significant trauma, and that her criminal record was clear and she was generally held in high regard in Australia, the Tribunal found that providing false statements in official applications and sworn evidence constituted a deficiency in her moral qualities. This deficiency was deemed sufficient to prevent the Tribunal from being satisfied that she was of good character.