A WA grandfather who spent 43 years living in Australia has been deported to the UK after a last-minute appeal against his visa cancellation was rejected.
Stephen Pokrywka, who was sentenced to six years in jail in 2019 for attempting to supply methylamphetamine, was not allowed to see his family in person before being deported on Wednesday.
In February, with the parole board having recommended he be released from jail, his visa was cancelled because he had been convicted of a crime that carried a sentence of more than 12 months.
Having arrived in Australia from the UK when he was 12, Pokrywka never applied to become an Australian citizen, but had he done so he would have avoided deportation.
Pokrywka was sent from jail to Yongah Hill Detention Centre in Northam, 95km north-west of Perth, where he appealed the deportation order he got early in his prison sentence.
The father-of-six and grandfather of 10 appealed on the grounds that he had no ties to the UK and never thought to apply for Australian citizenship when he became an adult.
In a last-ditch appeal on Tuesday, Pokrywka, 55, asked the federal court to be allowed stay in Australia to care for his 12-year-old daughter, but his appeal was rejected.
‘I went straight from the court hearing… into a visit with my 12-year-old daughter and I just couldn’t hold back the emotions, I was just absolutely gutted,’ he told the ABC.
WA grandfather Stephen Pokrywka (pictured), who spent 43 years living in Australia, has been deported to the UK after a last-minute appeal against his visa cancellation was rejected
‘What I’m feeling right now and the hurt and anguish I heard from my family when I told them… I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.
‘I thought common sense would prevail.’
Pokrywka visited Britain just once after he left as a child, and was concerned about the life now facing him there, needing to find somewhere to live and a job.
His first week of accommodation in the UK will be paid by the Australian government.
‘But after that, nothing’s in concrete,’ Pokrywka said.
His daughter Jess, 21, said the whole family is being punished by the deportation of her ‘very responsible’ father.
‘Not only is he sad because of being deported, but he’s family orientated and he wants to look after his parents, look after his family,’ she said.
Jess said the government ‘should be trying to keep our families together instead of breaking them apart’.
The father of six and grandfather of 10 had lived in Australia since he was 12 and said he had no ties to the UK and had just not thought to apply for Australian citizenship. Pokrywka is pictured on the left with family members
‘I don’t think that it’s fair, especially on my 12-year-old sister, to miss out on having a dad. It’s like your parent has passed away, and they’re alive,’ she said.
Advocate Gerry Georgatos said cases such as this were on the rise, with more than 1,000 people removed from Australia each year after the Migration Act was amended by the last Coalition government.
Mr Georgatos argued the government should not be deporting those ‘with family ties in this country, people who have lived their whole lives here’.
‘It’s become a vote buying exercise, to go tough on people, tough on crime,’ he said.