Direction No 84 revokes Direction No 56: ‘The purpose of this Direction is to guide decision makers performing functions or exercising powers under section 65, 414 or 415 of the Act when considering an application for the grant of a Protection visa and when reviewing a decision to grant a Protection visa.’
Direction No 56 was revoked by Direction No 84 on 24 June 2019. The terms of the new direction are as follows:
Commonwealth of Australia
Migration Act 1958
DIRECTION NO. 84 – CONSIDERATION OF PROTECTION VISA APPLICATIONS
(Section 499)
I, DAVID COLEMAN, Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs give this Direction under section 499 of the Migration Act 1958.
Date: 2019
THE HON DAVID COLEMAN MP
Minister for Immigration, Citizenship, Migrant Services and Multicultural Affairs
Part 1 Preliminary
1. Name of direction
This Direction is Direction no. 84 – Consideration of Protection visa applications.
It may be cited as Direction 84.
2. Commencement
This Direction commences the day after it is signed.
3. Revocation
Direction no. 56, given under section 499 of the Migration Act 1958 (the Act) and dated 21 June 2013, is revoked with effect from the date this Direction commences.
4. Objectives
The purpose of this Direction is to guide decision makers performing functions or exercising powers under section 65, 414 or 415of the Act when considering an application for the grant of a Protection visa and when reviewing a decision to grant a Protection visa.
It is desirable for first instance and review decision makers to take consistent approaches to the decision making task where there is no rational basis for these inconsistencies. Accordingly, it is desirable that subject to the Act and Migration Regulations 1994 (the Regulations) and other applicable laws, decision makers take as a starting point a common set of guidelines and country information.
Clauses
This Direction applies to a decision maker performing functions or exercising powers under section 65, 414 or 415 of the Act when considering an application for the grant of a Protection visa and when reviewing a decision to refuse to grant a Protection visa. This direction is subject to the Act and Regulations and other applicable laws.
In performing functions or exercising powers under section 65, 414 or 415 of the Act, the decision maker is to take account of the following guidelines prepared by the Department of Home Affairs to the extent that they are relevant to the decision under consideration.
‘Refugee Law Guidelines’
‘Complementary Protection Guidelines’
Where the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has prepared country information assessment expressly for protection status determination purposes, and that assessment is available to the decision maker, the decision maker must take into account that assessment, where relevant, in making their decision. The decision maker is not precluded from considering other relevant information about the country.
Disclaimer: the above is a mere extract of a direction. The views there expressed might not reflect the views of the Department, the AAT or the courts. The law or policies might have changed between the writing and reading of this article. The author of this article and Migration Law Updates disclaim any liability for any action (or omission) on their part based on any information provided (or not provided) in this article and are under no obligation to keep the general public nor practitioners informed about the matters discussed in this article or any other matters, or any future changes to any of those matters. It is the responsibility of each practitioner to obtain access to primary sources of law and policy by themselves and to carry out their own research and come to their own conclusions on legislation, case law, policies and more. This article is not intended for the general public.
Sergio Zanotti Stagliorio is a Registered Migration Agent (MARN 1461003). He is the owner of Target Migration in Sydney. He can be reached at sergio@targetmigration.com.au