After the incident, Leonard Gjeka, 23, of Mt Barker, was found to be in
breach of his bridging visa and was placed in Baxter.
An investigation by The Advertiser has revealed:
A NEW Zealand man, 43, who has legally lived and worked in Australia since
1991 and has an Australian wife and three Australian children, has spent 17
months in Baxter after having his application for Australian citizenship
rejected.
AN American man, 25, has been detained for 15 months – nine in Baxter – and
claims he was told "don't bother to appeal" when officers decided his
four-year relationship was not genuine.
ANOTHER American man, 39, was locked in Baxter for more than two weeks and
then deported after over-staying his visa for 32 days while he tried to have
his engagement to his pregnant Australian partner recognised.
Australian Council for Civil Liberties spokesman David Bernie said it was an
abuse of the purpose that Baxter was set up for.
"If it's someone with ties to the community, why is there a need for
detention at all?" he said. "With all these detention centres being set up
around Australia and privately staffed, there's almost a detention centre
industry and a need to fill them to keep them going.
"Holding people in detention is the same as sending them to jail – it should
be the last resort."
New Zealanders are legally allowed to live and work in Australia
indefinitely provided they hold a current NZ passport.
NZ consular officials said many NZ citizens were finding themselves in
Australian detention centres when they applied for Australian citizenship.
"New Zealanders can be deported from Australia if they fail the character
check set by Immigration," NZ consul in Canberra Bob Browne said.
The Immigration Department would not comment on individual cases. It said
that as of July 31 there were 138 people in Baxter – 129 men and nine women
– with about half in detention for more than a year.
TWO CASES
SONNY Peters, originally from Auckland, has lived in Australia since 1991
with no complaints from the Immigration Department about his character.
But when he applied to become an Australian citizen in 2003, the department
initiated moves to deport him.
His wife Julie, 42, was granted citizenship.
Mr Peters, 43, appealed against the deportation decision and, in March last
year, was sent to Baxter, where he has remained.
"What they (the Immigration Department) will probably end up doing is
splitting up a family," Mrs Peters said.
"My three children have grown up here, the youngest, my 12-year-old, was
born here. This is all they know, and I don't particularly want to go back
to NZ."
Mr Peters said he was stunned that he had ended up in Baxter because he had
applied for citizenship after 14 years living in Australia.
"I thought we were all Anzacs," he said.
"I didn't believe a place like this could exist."
Mr Peters served five years' jail in NZ after being convicted of assault at
the age of 16.
In Australia, he was also charged with assault following an incident while
he was working as a bouncer at Adelaide's Whitehorse Inn, in 1993. He
received a 12-month suspended sentence.
In 1998, he was stopped by police while driving an unregistered car.
He also was taken to court when he was overpaid by Centrelink, but he paid
the money back in full.
Mr Peters was a founding member of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club in Australia
but was never charged with any criminal activity in relation to the club.
He cut off all associations with the club in 2003, his wife said.
"He's being punished for what he was – not what he is," she said.
"The funny thing is he always wanted to be an Australian citizen . . . I was
never as keen but it's something that he always wanted to do."
AMERICAN Benjamin Reed claims he has spent the past 15 months in
detention, including nine in Baxter, because the Immigration Department does
not believe his marriage is real.
"They told me not to even bother to apply for a visa because `my
relationship wasn't genuine'," he said.
"It is, or it was until they locked me up. It's pretty hard to have a real
relationship when I'm locked up here and she's in Perth."
The former Colorado resident, 25, said he met wife, Missy, four years ago in
the U.S. They moved to Australia in 2002 and married in May, 2003.
The department, however, says he failed to prove to them the relationship
was real.
Mrs Reed, formerly Missy Astuto, has dual U.S./Australia citizenship.
She said the pair temporarily separated while they worked through some
difficulties in their marriage and, during that time, each had an
extra-marital affair.
"I'm still Ben's wife," she said. "I've been engaged several times but Ben's
the only one whom I've been in love with enough to marry. We both messed up
but we still want the marriage.
"He shouldn't be in Baxter. They (Immigration) should make a decision. He's
done his time for . . . not doing his paperwork.
"It's taking its toll on both of us. We just want to get on with our lives
again."
Mr Reed said he was stuck in limbo in Baxter – not wanting to stay but
unable to leave because of problems with his passport.
"It can be a bit crazy in here sometimes," he said.
"It's real tiring. The food is crap. You can't move around and see the
people you want to see.
"I don't know when I'm leaving. Everyone here is just lost. Everybody clings
to a little bit of hope."
Mr Reed has appealed deportation and goes back before the Federal Court in
November.
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