Administrative Appeals Tribunal welcomes illegals, drug dealers to Australia

HALF of the illegal boat people the Coalition Government tried to kick out of Australia have been saved by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

HALF of the illegal boat people the Coalition Government tried to kick out of Australia have been saved by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal overturning the deportation decision.

That’s despite the Immigration Department finding the 20 fake asylum seekers lied on their visa applications by saying they were at risk of being killed or persecuted if they returned to their own countries. Figures obtained by the Herald Sun reveal the Immigration Department attempted to deport 40 boat people who were granted protection visas under the previous Labor government.

All 40 appealed to the AAT and the AAT overturned the ministerial deportation decisions in 20 cases. Countries those allowed to stay in Australia came from included Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Africa.

The Herald Sun has also discovered a Turkish drug dealer convicted five times, including for peddling commercial quantities of heroin, ice, ecstasy and cannabis, was allowed to remain in Australia after the AAT quashed a decision to deport him.

The lenient treatment of Ahmet Candemir late last month, despite minimal evidence to show he was committed to rehabilitation, came as Immigration Minister Peter Dutton launched a blistering attack against the tribunal and its leadership.

The extraordinary intervention follows revelations in the Herald Sun yesterday that the AAT backed a fake refugee who claimed he was at real risk of being executed in Iran, only for him to make three return trips there.

TRIBUNAL LETS FAKE IRANIAN REFUGEES STAY IN AUSTRALIA

“When you look at some of the judgments that are made, the sentences that are handed down, it’s always interesting to go back and look at the appointment of the particular Labor government of the day,” Mr Dutton said. “It’s the frustration we live with.”

He took particular aim at the former president of the tribunal, Duncan Kerr, whose term expired on Monday.

“He was appointed either by (Kevin) Rudd or (Julia) Gillard, and his term is coming to an end in fact, and there will be a new appointment made ... it won’t be him I suspect,” Mr Dutton told 2GB radio.

Former Administrative Appeals Tribunal president Duncan Kerr.

The AAT has overturned 4389 visa decisions made by Mr Dutton or his delegates in the past year, 39 per cent of the 11,323 visa decisions made.

Despite numerous charges against Mr Candemir, the last in 2015, the AAT decided to allow him to remain in Australia because his wife and child, who has a significant disability, were dependent on him.

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