Six Sudanese criminals have been charged with alleged visa breaches so far this year, along with two Iranians and a man from Myanmar, after being released from immigration detention by Australia’s left-wing Labor government.
The Australian Federal Police said on Thursday a Sudanese man, 28, was arrested in Melbourne and charged with six counts of failing to comply with his curfew, and one count of failing to maintain his electronic monitoring device.
On January 16 a Sudan-born man, 38, was charged with 14 counts of failing to comply with his visa-mandated curfew conditions, five days later a Sudanese man, 46, was charged with two counts of the same offence, and two days after that another Sudan-born man, 33, was charged with three counts, all in Melbourne.
Then on January 29 a Sudanese man, 37, was charged with failing to comply with his visa-mandated reporting conditions in Brisbane, and on January 31 a Sudan-born man, 29, was charged with 12 counts of failing to comply with his curfew conditions in Sydney.
On January 3 an Iran-born man, 43, was charged with allegedly refusing to wear an electronic monitoring device, and on January 31 a Myanmar-born man was charged with failing to comply with one of his visa-mandated conditions – contacting the victim of an offence – in Logan, Queensland.
Another Iranian man was charged in Perth last week after allegedly failing to maintain his monitoring device, and in December another Sudanese man and an Afghanistan-born man were charged with allegedly failing to comply with their curfew conditions.
The foreign-born criminals who were refusing to be deported were all released from immigration detention after the High Court ruled in 2023 that a “stateless” Rohingya child rapist could not be detained indefinitely.
Despite serving sentences of 12 months or more, mainly for violent offences, 224 non-citizens have been allowed onto the streets since the decision, with about 150 subject to electronic monitoring and 130 to curfews as of October 2024.
Last month it was revealed that a Sudanese refugee member of Melbourne’s notorious Apex African gang had been charged with new offences, while in May last year a Sudanese refugee who had his visa cancellation overturned was charged with murdering another African man in Brisbane.
Another Sudanese man avoided deportation 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).
But in October last year left-wing lawyers launched a new class action seeking to expand the High Court ruling to cover all South Sudanese refugees, arguing that they are in legal limbo, which could see 400 violent criminal immigrants set free.
The lead plaintiff in the case has 80 convictions over 18 court appearances between 2009 and 2016, including more than 20 for violence and five more for family violence.
