Sudanese refugee Guot Makeur Guot to be deported over child sex crimes

A Sudanese refugee and aspiring musician who started a new life with his family in Hobart 14 years ago will be deported after committing 40 crimes, including child sex offences.

A SUDANESE refugee who started a new life in Tasmania after “turbulent and somewhat tragic” beginnings will be deported after committing child sex crimes interstate.

Guot Makeur Guot, 29, arrived in Tasmania during 2006 with his mother and four siblings on a special humanitarian visa after his father – a soldier – was killed in the South Sudan conflict.

The talented musician completed his schooling in Hobart and worked for a community centre but went on to commit some 40 crimes, according to an Administrative Appeals Tribunal decision.

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In February last year, Guot was jailed for eight months after sexually assaulting a woman on a Melbourne tram.

It came after he was convicted in 2015 for unlawful sexual intercourse with a 14-year-old schoolgirl in South Australia and his 2018 imprisonment in Melbourne for groping teen girls at a bus stop.

Last year, the Federal Immigration Minister cancelled his five-year resident return visa for failing to pass the character test.

Guot immediately fought the cancellation but failed, applying for the tribunal to review his case on the grounds his entire family now lived in Australia and because his safety was at risk back in Sudan, partly because of his Dinka ethnicity.

Senior tribunal member Donald Morris said Guot only gave a “very generalised” description of his concerns about returning to Sudan, and noted he was at high risk of committing further sex-based crimes.

He said Guot had been detained at immigration centres in South Australia and Christmas Island – where he took part in a riot – after his humanitarian visa expired while visiting his grandmother in South Sudan.

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Guot was granted a return resident visa at that point, but warned that further criminal offending could lead to deportation.

“What is starkly depressing is that, on release, Mr Makeur Guot resumed offending,” Mr Morris said.

“It is saddening that, having made an initially good start on settling in Australia with his family, completing his schooling and starting to develop his musical abilities, the applicant seems to have abandoned that progress and instead embarked on a path hallmarked by crime and, unfortunately, sometimes sexually-based crime.”

Mr Morris said he accepted Guot had struggled with alcohol problems and periods of homelessness, but “consistently failed” to turn his life around after being given several chances.

Under the Migration Act, any non-citizen who commits a serious crime – especially of a violent or sexual nature, and particularly against women, children or vulnerable community members – is generally “denied the privilege” of staying in Australia.