50 years Old Man Faces Deportation Despite Holding Australian Passport

  50-year-old Edward McHugh faces deportation due to a criminal conviction despite holding an Australian passport. McHugh has been in Australia for more than 40 years after his adoption at age six by a Queensland family and never imagined that he was anything but an Australian. He has begotten seven children in the country. The Islands-born man said he grew up in Toowoomba with Aussie parents that never saw any reason to do anything for him to become a citizen, as per reports. McHugh’s identity as an Australian hit a snag when he got information of his deportation before a year. His deportation is on character grounds as stated in section 501 of the Criminal Act. He was condemned to a 9-month jail term for illegal assault and threatened to take a life in February. McHugh described the situation as a mistake and does not agree with deportation on the ground on one blip. He will be deported to New Zealand as all Cook Island nationals have New Zealand Citizenship. He is presently living in Brisbane Immigration Transit Center. This is strange because he was granted a passport that clearly declared him an Australian last year, unlike about 1000 New Zealand people who have been deported in the past 2 years after serving a jail term.

His Situation Explained

Mr. McHugh was informed this year by Home Affairs Department that application by descent had never been received from him and is not considered Australian citizen by reason of his adoption because it came before the law changed. Automatic visa adoption came in to effect on November 1984 while the date of registration on his Queensland birth certificate granted him after adoption is November 1976. Nevertheless, it is puzzling how McHugh could get Australian passport with his birth certificate and adoption documents. Department of Home Affairs ha not been able to offer any explanation to this. They only said McHugh’s Absorbed Person Visa was revoked after his jail term. They made it clear that an Australian passport is not evidence of a person’s citizenship – non-citizens were granted passports until a law change in 2005. Stay in touch and get alerts & emails directly in your inbox by subscribing to VisaCrimes Check here for our latest immigration updates, local immigration activities, emerging trends, visa news updates for Australia, Canada, US, UK, Germany and more.