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

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal considered an application for Australian citizenship by conferral made by Mr Kaba. The delegate had refused the application, being unsatisfied as to the applicant's identity and date of birth due to inconsistencies in the documentation provided. The respondent also raised concerns regarding the applicant's return to Liberia in late 2016, submitting this was inconsistent with his earlier claims for protection. The applicant, a citizen of Liberia, had arrived in Australia in 2009 on a humanitarian visa.

The primary legal issue before the Tribunal was whether it could be satisfied as to the applicant's identity for the purposes of section 24(3) of the *Australian Citizenship Act 2007* (Cth). This required the Tribunal to resolve conflicting information regarding the applicant's date of birth, which had been recorded differently on various documents over time, including a UNHCR Resettlement Registration Form, an FOI request, an Australian driver's license, and his Liberian passport and birth certificate. The Tribunal also had to consider the significance of the applicant's travel to Liberia in 2016 in light of his protection claims.

The Tribunal found the applicant to be a credible and reliable witness, accepting his explanations for the discrepancies in his date of birth. It accepted his evidence that he fled Liberia in 1990 without personal documents and that an error occurred in 2003 during refugee registration in Ghana, leading to an incorrect date of birth being recorded on his identification card. The Tribunal also accepted the applicant's explanation for listing his eldest daughter as his own on certain forms, attributing this to cultural differences in recognising familial relationships, and found his explanation for listing her as a niece in a subsequent form to be consistent with adopting a Westernised understanding of relationships. The Tribunal was satisfied that the applicant's identity criteria were met.

Consequently, the Tribunal set aside the delegate's decision and remitted the matter for reconsideration, finding that the applicant satisfied the identity criteria for Australian citizenship by conferral.