Djokovic in last chance saloon
Australia cancels visa AGAIN and orders him back to detention centre – now he makes final court bid to allow him to stay
NOVAK Djokovic was facing a return to Covid detention last night after Australia cancelled his visa for a second time.
In yet another twist to a saga that now has dragged on for more than a week, officials yesterday ordered the deportation of the world tennis number one on ‘health and good order’ grounds.
But his lawyers immediately appealed and his fate is still uncertain, with court hearings set for today and tomorrow.
The move could scupper his hopes of becoming the greatest male singles player of all time with a record 21 Grand Slams to his name.
Victory at the Australian Open, which starts on Monday, would take him past rivals Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, who are tied with the Serbian on 20 major singles titles.
Djokovic trained yesterday before returning to his lawyer’s offices under the watch of Australian Border Police.
After the court hearing today, it is likely he will be returned to a grim detention centre, normally used to house asylum seekers, on the outskirts of Melbourne Airport.
Last week Djokovic’s mother Dijana complained that the Park Hotel was ‘for immigrants’ and ‘full of fleas with horrible food’.
Immigration minister Alex Hawke said he had used his executive powers to rip up the player’s visa, quashing
‘Extraordinary power’
a ruling delivered on Monday that freed him. Mr Hawke said it was in the public interest for him to do so.
Nick Wood, who represents the unvaccinated tennis star, 34, used an emergency court hearing yesterday to accuse ministers of cancelling the visa so as not to ‘excite’ anti-vaccination groups.
‘He poses only a negligible risk to others, Mr Djokovic has a medical reason not to be vaccinated,’ the barrister told the court, warning that time was running out.
But prime minister Scott Morrison hit back, suggesting even multi-millionaire tennis players must follow the country’s tough border rules.
‘Australians have made many sacrifices during this pandemic, and they rightly expect the result of those sacrifices to be protected,’ he said.
Australia shut its borders during the pandemic, even locking out its own citizens for months and causing heartbreak for expats unable to see their loved ones.
Current regulations prevent unjabbed foreigners from entering, apart from very limited exceptions.
Kian Bone, a migration lawyer at Macpherson Kelley in Melbourne, warned Djokovic faces an uphill legal battle to defend his title. ‘Australia has always had highly codified and highly legislated immigration policies,’ Mr Bone said. ‘We confer extraordinary power to the minister of immigration.’
If kicked out of the country, Djokovic could be banned from returning for three years. It means he will be unable to play again in Melbourne until he is perhaps past his prime.
Niki Pilic, Djokovic’s former coach and mentor, called the situation ‘shameful’ and said he was being treated like a ‘criminal’.
The Australian government, which is facing elections in May, appears to have the support of most of the Australian public for such a move. Opinion polls show that as many as 83 per cent want Djokovic to be deported.
More than 90 per cent of Australians are vaccinated, and players, staff and spectators at the open all have to show proof they have been jabbed to attend.
Sir Andy Murray, who is playing in the tournament, called for a swift resolution to the long-running spat, branding it ‘not great for tennis, not great for the Australian Open, not great for Novak’.
Boris Becker, who used to coach Djokovic, warned the player he was now entangled in ‘a political game’. But the six-time Grand Slam winner added: ‘No tennis player is bigger than the tournament.’
Djokovic featured in the draw on Thursday as the top male seed. He is due to begin defending his title on either Monday or Tuesday, facing fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanovic.
The star flew into Melbourne Airport on January 5, claiming that he had been granted a vaccine exemption because of a positive PCR test result on December 16.
Border agents rejected his exemption, immediately revoked his visa, and placed him in hotel detention, where he spent four nights.
The Australian government argues that a certificate of recovery does not qualify as a vaccine exemption for foreign nationals.
There are also questions over whether Djokovic broke Serbian Covid rules after he attended public engagements in Belgrade while infected. He also went to Spain and the authorities there are investigating if he breached any rules.
Djokovic has blamed ‘human error’ on the part his agent for inconsistencies on his travel documents.
Novak Djokovic will spend the weekend in immigration detention in Melbourne as he makes a last-ditch attempt to appear in the australian open.
The world No1’s visa was cancelled for a second time yesterday as the chaos he has brought to the tournament continued. Djokovic’s lawyers immediately appealed the ruling from the australian Government relating to his covid breaches.
Rather than being on the practice courts ahead of his title defence, Djokovic faced spending more time with his lawyers and at a secure hotel as they mounted a last-ditch attempt to allow him to stay and compete.
With the tournament allocating his half of the draw a Monday start, and with legal proceedings only concluding tomorrow, he could almost go straight from one court to another. Yet that would be dependent on a new judge again overturning the decision to expel him from the country.
Never in tennis history has there been a build up to a Grand Slam like this, with a
nine-times champion causing maximum mayhem through his determination to find a vaccination loophole. Whatever happens with his appeal, Djokovic’s preparations for the tournament have been severely hampered, although he has an ideal first-round match on Monday night, local time, against Miomir Kecmanovic, a relatively inexperienced fellow Serbian. It all remains dependent on whether his crack legal team can unpick the decision by immigration minister Alex Hawke to eject him. Should the decision go against Djokovic, then it would be accompanied by a three-year ban from setting foot in the country — although the government has the power to forego that.
His verdict was handed down in low-key fashion late yesterday afternoon in Australia, with the delay frustrating Djokovic’s lawyers, who immediately lodged an appeal. By 8.45pm they had secured an emergency court hearing to prevent him from being booted out. That ended at 11pm with the player being told that he would be formally detained nine hours later at a secret location to avoid a media and public circus. Djokovic should finally learn his fate by tomorrow evening, although everything is in the hands of Justice O’Callaghan, of the Federal Court. Hawke ended a wait of four days by announcing that he was cancelling the world No 1’s visa ‘on health and good order grounds, on the basis that it was in the public interest to do so’. Djokovic’s lawyer, Nick Wood, later told the court that the basis of it was, essentially, that his continued presence would excite anti-vaccination sentiment. While the extent of the government’s case was not immediately laid out, Wood added that they would attack the minister’s reasoning, which he described as ‘patently irrational’. Legal observers in Australia
pointed out that this case was entirely different to Monday’s, when Djokovic was initially granted a stay of execution. Due to the personal powers of the minister, the government has a lower bar to get over in convincing the judge of its technical argument that he should not be allowed to stay. Forcing Djokovic to leave the country would play well with the Australian public who, according to polls, would like to see that happen by a majority of around four to one. However, Djokovic’s team will argue that he is in ‘good standing’ and not a threat to the population, despite there being discrepancies in his visa application. If he wins his appeal, then it appears unlikely that the government will again try to throw him out.