Criminal who self-identifies as Aboriginal man to stay in Australia

A criminal Sudanese migrant who self-identifies as an Aboriginal man will be allowed to stay 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The visa was revoked after a series of convictions for knife crime, car theft and serious driving offences that left one victim with life-threatening injuries.

RCWV was also found guilty of breaching apprehended violence orders, stalking, and attacking an Aboriginal woman, The Australian reported.

His protection visa was then revoked meaning RCWV faced deportation. 

The Administrative Appeals Tribunal reversed a decision to cancel his visa under Direction 99 – an edict issued by Immigration Minister Andrew Giles in January 2023.

The direction asks the tribunal to take into consideration whether a non-citizen who commits a crime has spent their formative years in Australia.

In his submission to the tribunal, RCWV wrote that he had become a cherished member of his local community during his 15 years in Australia. 

He said he was in a 10-year partnership with an Aboriginal woman, the same woman he was found guilty of attacking, and that they had three children together. 

‘I self-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 its customs and tradition in a smoking ceremony.

‘I also learnt a lot about Aboriginal culture, was taught how to paint Aboriginal art and have also played digeridoo (sic) in the past.’

The AAT ultimately ruled 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 her sibling in hospital also had his visa reinstated under Direction 99. 

The 37-year-old New Zealand man, known as CHCY, was found guilty in 2022 of nine counts of ‘indecent treatment’ including rape against the teenager.

On two occasions after he had raped his stepdaughter, the man went into her room, climbed into her bed and rubbed her body.

At his sentencing, the judge told CHCY that he would lose his Australian visa and that he ‘may well be deported’.

Given the offender had first moved to Australia when he was 17-years-old, AAT ruled the New Zealand man had spent his formative years overseas. 

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It comes after a man who walked free from immigration detention following a successful appeal to AAT allegedly murdered a man just weeks later.

Emmanuel Saki, 29, who arrived from Sudan with his family aged 12, was charged with murder after the death of Bosco Minyurano, 22, on May 12. 

Given Saki arrived in Australia as a child, the tribunal determined he had ‘considerable’ ties to Australia and reversed 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 the Applicant’s favour,’ AAT deputy president Stephen Boyle wrote.

‘I agree that that is the case.’

Direction 99, issued by Mr Giles in January 2023, asks the AAT to make ‘ties to Australia’ a primary concern during visa determinations.

Since then, 35 offenders – including CHCY – have had their AAT findings overturned and have been allowed to remain in Australia.