Dozens of serious criminals, including child rapists and repeat violent offenders, have escaped deportation from Australia due to changes made by the immigrant-friendly Labor government.
They include a violent Sudanese thug who was allowed to stay because he self-identifies as Aboriginal, a New Zealander who raped his 14-year-old stepdaughter while his wife was giving birth, a Lebanese immigrant who raped a girl, 13, he picked up in his van, and accused Sudanese murderer Emmanuel Saki, among many more.
All were able to appeal their visa revocations because of Direction 99, issued by far-left former refugee advocate Immigration Minister Andrew Giles in January last year which allowed the Administrative Appeals Tribunal to give primary consideration to the “strength, nature and duration of an individual’s ties to Australia”.
Of 40 AAT appeals by immigrant criminals attempting to have their visa cancellations revoked that were first identified and reviewed by The Australian and verified by Noticer News, 28 were successful – 27 either wholly or partially on the basis of Direction 99.
The Sudanese immigrant, referred to as RCWV by the tribunal, was allowed to stay despite a long history of knife crime, car theft, serious driving offences, restraining order breaches, stalking and domestic violence, because he now considers himself Aboriginal like his partner (who he was convicted of attacking).
“I self-identify as an Aboriginal person and consider Australia to be my country,” his submission to the tribunal read.
“I have been accepted by the Indigenous people of this country through its customs and tradition in a smoking ceremony. I also learnt a lot about Aboriginal culture, was taught how to paint Aboriginal art and have also played digeridoo in the past.”
Lebanese citizen Abdul Wahab Trad, 45, raped a girl, 13, after she got in his van in Bankstown, south-west Sydney, but had his visa revocation cancelled because the tribunal’s Dr Linda Kirk, a former Labor senator, found deportation would cause his family “emotional and practical hardship”.
A New Zealand-born man given the pseudonym CHCY was found guilty of raping his stepdaughter, 14, multiple times while his wife was giving birth, but had his visa restored because he has lived in Australia for the majority of his life.
Another Sudanese criminal, Emmanuel Saki, 29, had his humanitarian visa revoked in 2019 after being jailed multiple times in three states for violent offences including assault, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and choking a person unconscious.
But AAT deputy president Stephen Boyle overturned the visa cancellation earlier this year, finding Saki was at low risk of reoffending, was remorseful, and had spent his formative years in Australia, having arrived as an 11-year-old from Egypt.
Only four weeks after being released Saki allegedly stabbed countryman Bosco Minyurano, 22, to death in a park where a group of African men were drinking until midnight, and is now back in jail charged with murder.
An Afghan man, a 29-year-old called ZJFQ, raped a girl, 16, and another intellectually disabled 14-year-old girl in 2020. He avoided deportation, despite an assessment of moderate to high risk of reoffending, because he had been in Australia for six and a half years and his family would suffer emotional distress if he was deported.
Dr Kirk was also responsible for that decision, finding that lack of mental health services in Afghanistan meant he would likely end up homeless and destitute if sent back.
Kenyan man XLFM, who raped his girlfriend’s younger sister, 17, and robbed a service station with a meat cleaver, was allowed to stay partly because of strong ties to Australia, and no comparable ties to any other country.
A man from Sierra Leone, LMFV, was found guilty of sexual intercourse with a cognitively impaired woman, 23, and infecting her with HIV, but had his visa returned on the basis that the standard of health care for the AIDS infected in his home country would put him at risk.
Rakesh Razwantee, from Mauritius, sent explicit images of himself to the child of a family friend. The tribunal let him stay because of his links to the Australian community, and the impact deportation would have on his wife and minor daughters.
A Cambodian man, JGNS, who has 76 convictions over 22 years for offences, convinced the tribunal to let him keep his visa, claiming that he has been “adopted by the Noongar community as an Aboriginal Australian man”.
Violent New Zealander meth trafficker Ashley Thompson and Canadian domestic violence abuser Samuel Brock Saunders were also given consideration due to Thompson’s links to the Yorta Yorta people and Saunders’ children identify as Aboriginal Australian.
Others who have had their visas reinstated under Direction 99 include:
- Violent Bulgarian meth dealer Kristian Kalinov
- Afghan suspected people smuggler XRGY
- Iranian citizen KQHR who was convicted of 150 offences over 40 years
- Iranian citizen YVBM who has multiple convictions for violent offences
- Iranian citizen DLZZ, who commited kidnapping and assault offences
- Sudanese meth user ZHRS who has a lengthy and violent criminal history including driving a stolen car into a police garage at speed
- Somalian armed robber Farhan Ahmed Farah
- Sri Lankan standover man Kasun Gayathra Wickramakarulu Arachchi
- Congolese domestic violence abuser HWGF
- Nigerian meth and cocaine importer TJHG
- Liberan armed robber BNBP
- Serbian man Peter Dobrosavljevic with a lengthy criminal history including property offences, drug offences, traffic offences, assault and weapons offences.
- Philippines citizen Mark Anthony Ibardaloza who attacked a man with a machete during a home invasion
- Fijian man Sefanaia Mitiani Tavola, who has convictions for theft, assault and domestic violence
- Albanian bikie BJKY who was convicted for growing marijuana and blackmail
- UK citizen Jordan Paul Mitchell who has multiple assault, drug, traffic and assault public officer convictions and once bit the lip off another man in fight
- New Zealanders Frank Fetelika who was jailed for a serious assault, domestic violence abuser and life-long drug addict Brett Terry Manuel, female kidnapper WCHR, meth dealer Foster Moli, domestic violence abuser Troy Olaman, drug and theft offender Pera Henare Wihongi-Lim, Aloisio Epifania Michael Muller who stabbed a man in the back during a fight in Parramatta, domestic violence offender Dawson Rawiri, armed robber Jamaal Jama, domestic violence offender Denley Rawiri-Pukeroa, female domestic violence offender Sophia Reo Brown, sex offender Blair Kenneth Burrows, domestic violence offender Glenn Taylor, drug supplier Himi Mau Rewiri, and drug addict burglar Byram Murati.
