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

This matter concerned an application for Australian citizenship by conferral under section 21(8) of the *Australian Citizenship Act 2007* (Cth) by a child applicant born in Australia to parents of Rohingya ethnicity. The core dispute revolved around whether the applicant was considered stateless and therefore eligible for citizenship under the specified provision. The case was heard by Linda Kirk SM.

The legal issues before the Tribunal were: (1) whether the applicant’s parents were citizens of Myanmar; (2) if they were, whether the applicant acquired Myanmar citizenship at birth; (3) the consequence of the failure to register the applicant’s birth; and (4) ultimately, whether the applicant was eligible for citizenship by conferral under s 21(8) of the Act. The Tribunal considered evidence regarding the parents' Rohingya ethnicity, their purported citizenship documents obtained through bribery, and the difficulties they faced in registering their children on official lists, which they attributed to their ethnicity and religion.

The Tribunal's reasoning was informed by expert material detailing the impact of Myanmar's *Burma Citizenship Law of 1982* on the Rohingya population. This law effectively excluded the Rohingya from acquiring Myanmar citizenship, as they were not recognised as one of the 135 national ethnic groups automatically granted citizenship. The Tribunal accepted that the Rohingya, due to bureaucratic delays and the exclusionary nature of the 1982 law, were rendered *de jure* stateless, meaning they had not received nationality automatically nor been granted citizenship through any state's laws. This *de jure* statelessness, coupled with the applicant's birth in Australia, established the applicant's eligibility under s 21(8) of the Act.

The Tribunal set aside the previous reviewable decision and substituted a new decision finding the applicant eligible for citizenship by conferral under s 21(8) of the *Australian Citizenship Act 2007* (Cth), and ordered that the applicant be granted citizenship under s 24 of that Act.