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'I'm Aussie': Man with disability to be deported to Canada after racking up criminal record
Colin Martin admits he is frightened because by the end of the month he will be on a plane to Canada, the home of his birth — but a place he knows little about.
"To be honest with you I'm scared because I don't know anything," the 26-year-old told the ABC over the phone from a detention facility.
"You know it's another country — I've grown up in Australia — I'm Aussie."
He came to Australia as a toddler when his Australian-born mother and Canadian father moved to Australia in 1994.
"I've grown up here, I've done all my school here," he said.
But school was difficult and he was diagnosed with an intellectual disability when he was 14, around the same time he started offending and taking drugs.
Deported under 'bad character' test
It has been almost a year since he was picked up by Immigration officers at Dandenong Magistrates Court in Melbourne's east, and told he was an overstayer.
He's also been deemed of "bad character" by the Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton because of a long history of criminal offending.
Timeline:
"I didn't know in doing these offences that I'd be thrown out of the country away from my friends and family," he told an appeal hearing of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) last week.
"How can I be unlawful at three years old," he asked AAT senior member Andrew Nikolic who was presiding over the matter.
The AAT heard Martin had committed more than 150 offences — mostly graffiti and other property offences, but also drugs and driving or traffic convictions.
The most serious crime was taking part in an armed robbery of a Subway franchise in November 2011.
PHOTO: This graph shows the number of Australian visas cancelled (blue) and refused (red) on character grounds since 2010. (Supplied: Department of Home Affairs)
Colin Martin admits he is frightened because by the end of the month he will be on a plane to Canada, the home of his birth — but a place he knows little about.
"To be honest with you I'm scared because I don't know anything," the 26-year-old told the ABC over the phone from a detention facility.
"You know it's another country — I've grown up in Australia — I'm Aussie."
He came to Australia as a toddler when his Australian-born mother and Canadian father moved to Australia in 1994.
"I've grown up here, I've done all my school here," he said.
But school was difficult and he was diagnosed with an intellectual disability when he was 14, around the same time he started offending and taking drugs.
Deported under 'bad character' test
It has been almost a year since he was picked up by Immigration officers at Dandenong Magistrates Court in Melbourne's east, and told he was an overstayer.
He's also been deemed of "bad character" by the Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton because of a long history of criminal offending.
Timeline:
- 1992: Colin Martin born in Canada
- 1994: Moved to Australia
- 2006: Diagnosed with a learning disability, aged 14
- 2007: Started using heroin and marijuana
- 2011: Convicted of taking part in armed robbery, sentenced to 2 years' jail
- 2017: Detained by immigration officials to be deported
- May 2018: Appeal against deportation dismissed
"I didn't know in doing these offences that I'd be thrown out of the country away from my friends and family," he told an appeal hearing of the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) last week.
"How can I be unlawful at three years old," he asked AAT senior member Andrew Nikolic who was presiding over the matter.
The AAT heard Martin had committed more than 150 offences — mostly graffiti and other property offences, but also drugs and driving or traffic convictions.
The most serious crime was taking part in an armed robbery of a Subway franchise in November 2011.
PHOTO: This graph shows the number of Australian visas cancelled (blue) and refused (red) on character grounds since 2010. (Supplied: Department of Home Affairs)
