Mohamed Ahmed Omer becomes first person convicted of exit trafficking in Victoria

A Melbourne man who tricked his wife into travelling to Sudan before returning to Australia with their children and cancelling her visa faces years behind bars after being found guilty of exit trafficking.

Mohamed Ahmed Omer outside court. Picture: Nicki Connolly

A Melbourne father has become the first Victorian convicted of exit trafficking after he cancelled his wife’s visa and stranded her in Sudan.

Mohamed Ahmed Omer, 52, faces years behind bars after a County Court jury on Monday found him guilty of tricking his wife into going on an overseas family holiday before he ditched her and returned to Melbourne with their two young children.

The month-long trial heard Omer partnered his Sudanese-born wife — who was 17 years his junior — in an arranged marriage before he sponsored her move to Australia in 2012.

But the couple’s relationship deteriorated as Omer became increasingly controlling and violent after the birth of their first child.

Omer outside the County Court earlier this year. Picture: Nicki Connolly

Omer barred her from leaving their Docklands apartment unless he accompanied her and limited her access to finances and mobile phones.

In September 2014, they went on a purported holiday to the African country with their two children, then aged just two and six months.

Omer had secretly cancelled his wife’s Australian visa months earlier and was in possession of her identity documents and passport when he left and returned to Australia with their kids.

When the woman contacted the Australian Embassy in Egypt, she was told her husband had informed immigration authorities that they had separated and her visa had been cancelled.

The woman made multiple attempts to have her visa reinstated between October 2014 and January 2016, but was denied because her husband refused to sponsor her.

She was eventually able to return to the country in February 2016 — about 16 months since she last saw her children — after receiving help from legal aid and a migrant welfare charity.

Omer was charged by Australian Federal Police in March 2022 following an investigation by its human trafficking team.

His case is the first successful prosecution of exit trafficking in Victoria, which carries a maximum 12 years in jail.

Omer, who was taken into custody after the verdict, will return to court for a pre-sentence hearing on June 14.