Albanese government has no knowledge of Trump administration threat to deport Iranian man to Australia
|
Version 0 of 1. Reza Zavvar has lived in US for 40 years but is being held in detention due to marijuana conviction from the 1990s Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Labor has cast doubt on the possibility of the Trump administration transferring an Iranian-born man from US immigration detention to Australia, saying it has no knowledge of the case. The US government is threatening to deport Reza Zavvar, a 52-year-old permanent resident who lives in Maryland, to either Australia or Romania – despite having no links to either country. Zavvar is being held in detention near his home, despite previously holding a US immigration green card, due to a historical conviction for marijuana possession which dates back to the 1990s. He arrived in the US at 12 years of age on a student visa, meaning he has lived in the US for four decades. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Zavvar cannot be sent back to Iran due to risk of persecution, and his lawyer Ava Benach says he has been told he could be sent to a third country under so-called “withholding of removal” status since 2007. Most people with the status are never deported. Documents provided by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement suggest Zavvar could be sent to Australia or Romania. Benach said Zavvar has never lived in either country. “There is no rhyme of reason to it, that was just what was put on the form,” Benach said. “He has not ties to Australia. He’s never been to Australia. No family, no education there. How they came up with that is anyone’s guess.” Guardian Australia approached the home affairs minister, Tony Burke, and the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, about the case. The government said it has not been approached by the United States in relation to it. A government spokesperson said there was no new agreement for transfer of US immigration detainees to Australia. “We consider any application for a visa on its merits – we have not been contacted by the US government about this matter,” the spokesperson said. “There have been no new agreements made with the Trump administration on immigration.” Benach told ABC radio many Iranians living in the US had faced arrest and detention. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion “He’s perplexed. He never would have contemplated that this could have happened.” The Trump administration has taken a hard line on deporting non-citizens from the US, often to countries in South America. The deportation policy has seen people arrested without warning by federal officials around the US, and has sparked a series of legal challenges. While there is currently no arrangement for receiving deportees from US, a 2016 deal was reached by Barack Obama and then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull for the transfer of up to 1,250 people held in Australia’s offshore immigration detention system. Men, women and children from Sudan, Iran, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were among the first people resettled in the US, after being held in Nauru and Papua New Guinea. The agreement attracted Trump’s rage after he became president in early 2017, prompting him to hit out at the “the worst deal ever” in a fiery conversation with Turnbull. Leaks of a transcript of the conversation shook the American alliance. Trump reluctantly agreed to honour the deal, the terms of which have never been made public. More than 1,100 people were transferred to the US, according to statistics compiled by the Refugee Council of Australia. |