Reprieve for deportee

AN Apollo Bay man held in immigration detention for more than six months has been given permission to live in Australia.

The Department of Home Affairs cancelled Christian Feetham’s visa because changes to the Migration Act in 2014 meant non-citizens who failed a character test could be stripped of their visas.

Mr Feetham, 42, was born in New Zealand to an Australian mother and English father, and has lived in Australia since he was 13 months old.

In 2013, he pleaded guilty to 36 charges relating to a two-year crime spree, which included assaulting his sister, with whom he says he has since mended his relationship.

The father of three claimed he had turned his life around since he was released from prison in 2014 and was responsible for managing the family farm before he was detained.

Mr Feetham said he was not expecting his permanent residential visa to be reinstated and on Monday had signed documents to be deported to New Zealand because he could no longer cope with living in detention.

He said being kept in immigration detention was “worse than prison”.

Mr Feetham said immigration officers visited him at Melbourne Immigration Transition Accommodation Centre on Wednesday to tell him his visa had been reinstated and he could leave immigration detention.

It came after he spent five months in Maribyrnong Detention Centre and more than a month in the Melbourne Immigration Transition Accommodation Centre.

“You just don’t know what will happen, it’s not like prison when you know when you’ll get out,” he said.

“They don’t let you work or do anything. I was very depressed, you’re not living in there, you’re just existing.”

Mr Feetham said he was looking forward to “business as usual” and he would apply for Australian citizenship.

“I’m pretty overwhelmed. It just proves you can turn your life around for the better, I wouldn’t have gotten out of detention without the help of the community when I was in a dire situation,” he said.

The Department of Home Affairs refused to reveal why it reinstated Mr Feetham’s visa.

“The department does not comment on individual cases,” a spokeswoman said.