Irish man released from Australian detention centre

An Irish man who had been detained by immigration services in Western Australia has been released and is expected to arrive in Dublin on Saturday evening.

Bernard Lee, from Greystones, Co Wicklow, was arrested at his home in Perth on July 25th after his application for a permanent residence visa was denied and his working visa cancelled.

Mr Lee denied having seen a letter sent to inform him of the situation and which gave him 20 days to leave Australia.

Mr Lee has been convicted of criminal offenses in both Ireland and Australia, including drink driving and driving without a license.

He is being accompanied on the flight to Ireland by two members of staff from Serco, a private company that runs the Yongah Hill Immigration Detention Centre, where Mr Lee was detained.

"When there is a visa cancellation on character grounds,they have a couple of escorts," Mr Lee's lawyer Alisdair Putt told The Irish Times.

“What happens is they bill the person, not that they ever get their money back. To me it’s surprising that they don’t do risk assessments, given the nature of Bernard’s criminal convictions.”

Ireland's Honorary Consul in Perth, Marty Kavanagh, has been in regular contact with Mr Lee's family since he was detained.

“My office spokewith Bernard and I’ve had a huge amount to do with his family,” he said.

Mr Kavanagh had discussions with the Australian authorities about Mr Lee’s case.

“The Embassy and ourselves [in Perth] were in direct contact with Border Force and they were, as they always are, very forthright with us and very helpful. “They were on top of it quickly and they were giving us solidinformation on where things were at … which we were then able to relay to the family. Trying to get accurate information and quickly is the most important thing when these things happen,” he said.

“But obviously emigration is a matter for the Australian authorities, so we can make representations, but the law is the law.”

Mr Putt says he is confident Mr Lee could have successfully appealed the decision to exclude him from Australia, but it would have meant staying in the immigration detention for up to nine months.

“My view is that his non-disclosure [of his criminal conviction in Ireland] when filling in his passenger card, is at the lower end of seriousness, given he had resided in Australia for seven years. It is pretty over the top to cancel without notice and take someone to immigration detention.

“While they weren’t required to give notice, you could do a risk assessment and say ‘this guy’s at the lower end of the scale, we’ll contact his immigration lawyer and say mate you’ve got two weeks [to leave thecountry]’,” said Mr Putt.

“If I get any Irish person, or anyone else for that matter, into my business tomorrow, and they’ve got some minor criminal convictions,what do I say to them if they say they want to apply for permanent residence? Do I say look mate, I think you’re going to be okay, but if I’m wrong, the first I’ll know about it is when you get a knock on the door and taken off to immigration detention,” he added.

Mr Putt said because Mr Lee’s visa was cancelled on character grounds, he will not be able to return to Australia.

“Bernard’s in a relationship with an Australian. If that becomes permanent, he’s never coming back. I told him this. He had a really unenviable choice. Either stay in immigration detention for months on end and see if you can win your appeal, or go overseas. And if you go overseas, it’s a one-way trip.

“He wasn’t Islamic State and he wasn’t a violent offender. Ithink it was the deception of the department [of immigration] by not ticking the boxes on the passenger card, that didn’t do him any favours,” said Mr Putt.