A Sudanese criminal migrant who identifies as Aboriginal will be allowed to remain in Australia.
The man, also known as RCWV, was born in Khartoum and spent the first 20 years of his life in Africa before moving to Australia on a protection visa.
The visa was revoked after a series of convictions for knife offences, car theft and serious driving offenses which left one victim with life-threatening injuries.
RCWV was also found guilty of breaching detained violence orders, stalking and attacking an Aboriginal woman. The Australian reported.
His protection visa was then revoked, which meant RCWV faced deportation.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal overturned a decision to cancel his visa under Directive 99, an edict issued by Immigration Minister Andrew Giles in January 2023.
A Sudanese man who identifies as Aboriginal and has a long criminal record will be allowed to remain in Australia under Directorate 99 (pictured, Villawood Detention Centre)
The directive asks the court to take into account whether a non-citizen who commits a crime has spent his or her formative years in Australia.
In its court submission, RCWV wrote that it had become a beloved member of its local community during its 15 years in Australia.
He said he was associated for 10 years with an Aboriginal woman – the same woman he was convicted of attacking – and they had three children together.
“I identify as an Aboriginal person and consider Australia to be my country,” he wrote in his submission.
‘I have been accepted by the indigenous people of this country through their customs and tradition in a smoking ceremony.
“I also learned a lot about Aboriginal culture, I was taught how to paint Aboriginal art and I also played digeridoo (sic) in the past.”
The AAT ultimately ruled that the man should be allowed to remain in Australia.
It comes as a man who raped his 14-year-old stepdaughter while her mother gave birth to his brother in hospital also had his Visa reinstated under Direction 99.
The 37-year-old New Zealander, known as CHCY, was found guilty in 2022 of nine counts of “indecent treatment”, including rape, against the teenager.
Directive 99, issued by Giles (pictured) in January 2023, requests that the AAT make “links with Australia” a primary concern during visa determinations.
On two occasions, after raping his stepdaughter, the man entered her room, got into her bed and rubbed her body.
At his sentencing, the judge told CHCY he would lose his Australian visa and “may well be deported”.
As the offender had first moved to Australia when he was 17, the AAT ruled the New Zealand man had spent his formative years abroad.
It comes after a man who walked free from an immigration detention center following a successful appeal to the AAT allegedly murdered a man just weeks later.
Emmanuel Saki, 29, who arrived from Sudan with his family of 12 years, was charged with murder following the death of Bosco Minyurano, 22, on May 12.
Because Saki came to Australia as a child, the court found that he had “considerable” links to Australia and revoked the cancellation of his visa.
“The Minister accepted… that considerable weight should be given to the fact that the Applicant has been ordinarily resident in Australia during and since his formative years and accepted that this primary consideration weighs in favor of the Applicant,” the vice president wrote. AAT, Stephen Boyle.
“I agree that that is the case.”
Directive 99, issued by Giles in January 2023, calls on the AAT to make “links with Australia” a primary concern during visa determinations.
Since then, 35 offenders, including CHCY, have had the AAT’s findings overturned and been allowed to remain in Australia.