Australia Begins Deporting Migrants Who Rape Citizens
Immigrants who rape women and children now lose Australian citizenship
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The Australian Government has now moved to begin deporting foreign migrants who rape citizens after being granted citizenship in Austrailia.
The country's Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton came under fire for the ruling after liberal rights groups claimed that revoking the citizenship of dangerous criminals was "inhumane" because it rendered them "stateless."
Australian officials have rejected these human rights claims, however, ruling that the safety of the nation's citizens, primarily the victims of such crimes who are typically innocent women and children, must come first.
The first refugee to be stripped of his Australian citizenship and deported is a South Sudanese predator who raped a girl in a park after threatening her with a cricket bat.
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Daily Mail reports: Jal Galuak attacked his 17-year-old victim as she walked through Springthorpe Gardens, in the south-east Melbourne suburb of Murrumbeena, on the night of April 8, 2007.
The teenage girl was walking from a nearby train station to a friend's house when Galuak, wielding a cricket bat, grabbed her from behind, forced her to undress and raped her in a secluded area of the park.
He initially avoided detection over the sexual assault for close to five years, before a drink-driving arrest and subsequent DNA test in 2011 linked him to the crime, Nine News reports.
Galuak was charged in September 2014 and was sentenced to five years in jail in 2015 after pleading guilty in the Victorian County Court.
Now, more than ten years since the shocking incident, he is set to be stripped of his Australian citizenship.
It was noted that Galuak had been a repeat offender in the time between the sexual assault in 2007 and his imprisonment in 2015 - amassing a serious criminal rap sheet that included robbery, making threats to kill and drug possession.
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In light of his repeat offending and his low chance of rehabilitation, Department of Home Affairs revoked Galuak's Australian citizenship - which he was granted in November 2007 - on June 22.
Galuak appealed, claiming that Minister for Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton could not exercise his power to revoke a "serious" criminal's citizenship if that person was not a national citizen of any other country, thus rendering them "stateless."
The Australian Administrative Tribunal rejected his appeal, however, on the basis that he had an "an inalienable right to enjoy South Sudanese citizenship and nationality."
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In addition to Galuak having been diagnosed with an intellectual disability and severe behavior disorder, the tribunal also heard that he was, at the time of the attack, suffering post-traumatic stress disorder after being tortured by rebels in Sudan.
Galuak showed a psychologist the scars on his legs that he claimed to have received after being tied down and burned with a heated blade.
Nonetheless, the tribunal declared that 'He has shown scant regard for upholding and obeying the laws of Australia... There is a substantial risk of re-offending and... it would be contrary to the public interest for Mr. Galuak to remain an Australian citizen.'
Galuak currently remains in prison.
