Immigration Minister’s deportation order for violent ice addict overturned in Philippines kill fear
A VIOLENT ice addict has beaten a deportation order from Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton despite failing the character test to stay in Australia.
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A VIOLENT ice addict has beaten a deportation order from Immigration and Border Protection Minister Peter Dutton despite failing the character test to stay in Australia.
The addict, 28, applied for a protection visa, claiming if he was returned to the Philippines he could face extrajudicial killing from the Duterte regime.
A permanent visa granted when he arrived here as a six-year-old with his mother and two sisters was revoked in 2015 after two prior warnings.
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The Administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia, which has protected the man’s identity by identifying him only as BHKM, heard he was beaten by his mother’s partner until he was 11 or 12, experimented with drugs at 13, and was addicted to ice by 17.
BHKM has a history of petty crime, with a degree of violence, dating back to 2006.
His crimes have been mostly driving offences, but his violence has included robbing a train passenger and smashing his head against a window, and wounding someone after joining a street fight to help his younger brother.
BHKM also breached an apprehended violence order by entering the home of a former girlfriend, who he said needed a crowbar to get him to leave.
BHKM has spent the last five years in jail and immigration detention.
He has rarely worked, having got his year 10 school qualification at TAFE, but told the tribunal he now wanted to get a job and put his troubled past behind him.
His mother and sisters spoke of the positive changes they had seen since BHKM began a methadone program in prison, which he has continued in detention.
In April last year, BHKM was granted refugee status by the migration and refugee division of the tribunal on the belief his life would be at risk if returned to the Philippines due to his status as a former drug user and his present use of methadone.
The Immigration Department accepted that returning BHKM to the Philippines would breach Australia’s international obligations under international treaties, not to forcibly return a person who is a refugee to their native country where they have a well-founded fear that their life or liberty will be threatened.
But in October last year a delegate of Mr Dutton turned down his request for a protection visa, mainly on the ground that he should be deported for the protection of the community.
AAT deputy president Brian Rayment found protection of the community was the only issue that supported upholding the minister’s decision, while all others, including community expectations, and the impact on other family members, supported setting the decision aside.
In particular, Mr Rayment found Australia’s international obligations strongly favoured overturning the minister’s decision.
He found that while BHKM’s previous failure to rehabilitate himself, even after the threat of deportation, suggested there was a risk that he might offend again if the methadone program was continued after his release, “there is reason to think that the risk of his reoffending is significantly lower than previously in his life”.
So, despite BHKM not passing the character test to stay in Australia, Mr Rayment ruled the decision to refuse him a protection visa should be set aside and remitted for reconsideration with the direction that discretion should be exercised in favour of granting the visa.