Refugee gets to stay in Australia
No deportation for Congo man
A CONGO-BORN man has earned a reprieve to stay in Australia from a national tribunal, despite being convicted of having sex with a 14-year-old girl.
Malipo Muyobe, who a Toowoomba District Court jury found guilty of carnal knowledge in 2017, fought deportation to his home country after the Department of Home Affairs revoked his refugee status over the criminal convictions.
The 25-year-old was sentenced to 10 months’ jail for the offence however the jury acquitted him of raping the teenage girl.
The court at the time heard Muyobe had been drinking with the 14-year-old before they engaged in sexual intercourse at a party celebrating his friend earning his driver’s licence.
Upon his release on parole in February 2018, the fatherof-three was handed straight over to Australian Border Force officials who transported him to facilities on Christmas Island and in Melbourne after his refugee visa was cancelled.
In appealing the decision, Muyobe’s solicitor Manfred Ewikowski submitted to the Administrative Appeals Tribu- nal of Australia that his client’s family spent 12 years in Tanzanian refugee camps fleeing persecution in the Democratic Republic of Congo. In his home country, Muyobe had been targeted due to his ethnicity and tribal warfare.
The tribunal heard the refugee had a littered criminal history since arriving in Australia, committing 25 offences in Toowoomba and Beenleigh before facing trial over having sex with the teen.
His criminal activity had alerted border force, which asked Queensland Corrections to be notified should he be sentenced to 12 months jail or more.
Queensland prison officials said his “brutal” upbringing played a role in his behaviour around police and authorities.
In revoking his visa cancellation last month, AAT deputy president Stephanie Forgie said Muyobe deserved a second chance as he had only been in the country for eight years.
“I do not have any evidence regarding the effect of a decision not to revoke the cancellation of Mr Muyobe’s visa on the victims of his crime and the family members of those victims,” she said. He will now remain in Australia as a holder of a refugee visa.