Judge Robertson J, in the Federal Court in Sydney this morning has found there was sufficient concern about the role of the unregistered migration agent, Toufic Sarkis, to warrant a further hearing by the Full Federal Court, next year, of the case of Faisal, the Iraqi asylum seeker who was facing deportation.
Accordingly, the Department of Immigration will not be able to deport Faisal before that hearing expected in March next year.
“It is a victory for common sense,” said Ian Rintoul, “It is a shame that Faisal was put through an attempted forced removal and then had to go to court to rectify such an obvious injustice.
“The Minister could have acted to prevent Faisal being treated this way, but was quite willing to deal with an unregistered migration agent whose dodgy practices are well known to the Department. There is a good case for establishing a Ministerial code of conduct to prevent any future abuses of this kind.
“Now the Minister needs to explain how the Immigration Department obtained a travel document for an Iraqi asylum seeker despite Iraqi government policy being not to accept forced returns of asylum seekers from Australia.
“Someone in the Immigration Department has clearly misrepresented Faisal’s situation to the Iraqi government. The Minister must be held accountable for the duplicity that put Faisal’s life in danger.”
For more information contact Ian Rintoul 0417 275 713.
