By Erin Pearson
A father who allegedly abandoned his wife overseas before returning to Australia with their young children is accused of secretly cancelling her partner visa in the first exit-trafficking case to be prosecuted in Victoria.
A County Court trial heard on Thursday that Mohamed Ahmed Omer, 52, was living in Australia when he wed his Sudan-born wife in an arranged marriage and moved her to Melbourne in 2012.
County Court of Victoria.Credit: Darrian Traynor
After the birth of their first child, a girl, Crown prosecutor John Saunders said, Omer allegedly became violent and threatening towards his wife at their Docklands home, including when she tried to contact her extended family on the phone.
In September 2014, when their second child, a boy, was six months old and his mother still breastfeeding him, Omer bought four plane tickets with cash so the family could travel to Sudan for a family holiday.
Saunders said the wife was unaware Omer had contacted the government and withdrawn his support for her sponsored partner visa three months earlier.
In late September 2014 Omer, who is an Australian citizen, returned alone to Melbourne with the couple’s children and his partner’s passport, leaving her behind.
The jury was told the woman was unable to return to the country for more than 16 months as she was unable to obtain a new visa until February 2016.
“[The complainant] would not have left Australia if she knew the truth about her visa and residency status,” Saunders said. “The Crown alleges Omer deceived her into leaving Australia at that time.
“She did not have valid travel documents and was unable to re-enter Australia until February 2016.”
The court heard that the Australian Federal Police’s human trafficking team later launched an investigation following correspondence from Australian Border Force.
The woman told officers that the marriage soured towards the end of 2012, Omer prevented her from having a mobile phone and she was largely kept isolated at home and exposed to violence.
This included, the court heard, Omer using foul language, hitting his wife and threatening that she would die if she did not return to Sudan.
She said her husband also forced her to care for other people’s children even when she was heavily pregnant and too tired to continue. Omer, she told police, was being paid for this work.
The woman told police that, at one point, Omer also threatened to move out of the family’s Docklands home with the children, leaving her alone with no money.
Saunders said that between October 2014 and January 2016, the woman made a number of attempts to have her Australian visa reissued but was refused because Omer would no longer sponsor her.
She was eventually able to return to the country after securing support from legal aid and the New Hope Foundation.
The prosecution said that in email correspondence between Omer’s legal team and police, the accused man said, “his wife decided to return to Sudan and abandoned him and their two children”.
Omer denies he deceptively took his wife to Sudan or left her there and is defending a single charge of deceptively organising or facilitating the exit of another person from Australia.
Defence barrister Brett Stevens told the jury his client did not dispute buying the airline tickets or leaving the country with his family for a holiday. What is at issue, Stevens said, was that Omer deceived his wife.
“That is very strongly contested,” Stevens said.
The trial before Judge Frank Gucciardo continues.
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