Vic: Canadian national fears deportation death

AAP General News (Australia)
12-07-2009
Vic: Canadian national fears deportation death

By Paul Mulvey

MELBOURNE, Dec 7 AAP - A Canadian citizen who has lived in Australia for 10 years fears
he will die if he is deported on Wednesday.

Ziad Chebib, 49, was told on Monday he will be flown to Vancouver, leaving a son, daughter
and grandson behind in Melbourne.

Mr Chebib, a Lebanese-born Canadian national, was detained in Melbourne last week and
a meeting with immigration officials on Friday brought him no relief.

"If they move me out of here, I'll die," he told AAP.

"I've got heart murmurs, I've not eaten in six or seven days. All the pressure on the
plane, I can't do it."

Mr Chebib has been on a hunger strike since last Wednesday and has accused the government
of disregarding its humanitarian responsibility.

After arriving in Melbourne from Calgary with his wife Salime and his four children
in 1999, he lost his bid for permanent residency because he failed to satisfy the income
requirements of the business visa.

An immigration department spokesman said last Friday Mr Chebib had been granted 23
bridging visas since June 2008 on the basis of his stated intentions to leave Australia.

Mr Chebib says he has asked the Canadian government for help and will also campaign
at the Australian High Commission in Ottawa, but the department of immigration says he
has run out of chances.

"He has exhausted all appeal processes and will be removed," a department spokesman said.

"He's used every avenue including ministerial intervention and has been turned down six times."

Mr Chebib fears he might suffer the same fate as Scotsman Andrew Moore who died two
days after being deported despite having lived in Australia for 30 years since the age
of 11.

Mr Moore was deported after a string of criminal convictions and was found dead on
a footpath in London in October, Fairfax newspapers reported on Monday.

"I have $20.15, I don't have anything all. All I'm taking is my hunger strike," Mr Chebib said.

But the immigration department said there was provision to grant Mr Chebib a destitution
allowance and had arranged to assist him in his onward journey to Toronto, where he has
a son.

He has another son, daughter and grandson in Melbourne - all of whom are Australian
citizens - while his wife Salime and eldest son Tarek, 29, are in Lebanon.

He said his wife and son, who suffers bi-polar disorder, were forced to Lebanon in
July by pressure from the immigration department.

Mr Chebib said he will be escorted back to Canada by two staff from the department
of immigration and three from the NSW police.

AAP pmu/it/de

KEYWORD: CHEBIB

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