The deportation of a 17-year-old boy who spent months in an adult detention facility before getting his visa back would be a worrying precedent, an immigration lawyer says.
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton says he's taking legal advice after the New Zealand teenager this week won an appeal at the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.
The boy, who has lived in Australia since he was 10, had been at the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation facility since March awaiting a July deportation hearing, reportedly for non-violent offending.
But while the teen has been released and is back with family in Sydney, Mr Dutton and the tribunal have disagreed in past.
Australian Lawyers Alliance spokesman Greg Barns, who helped in the teenager's appeal, said he could not comment on the particulars of the case, but that the deportation of any minor would be concerning.
"There has been a history with this minister of ignoring the AAT," Mr Barns said.
"It would be concerning if he were to remove youth or children from Australia."
The details of the case have been kept under wraps by the AAT on grounds of privacy.
The case has spurred criticism across the ditch, with New Zealand's acting prime minister, Winston Peters, accusing Australia of breaching UN conventions by holding the teen with adults.
But Mr Dutton was unfazed.
"We don't want him here in Australia and if New Zealand want him back, then he's welcome to get on the first flight out," he told reporters in Sydney earlier this month.
More than 600 New Zealanders have had their visas cancelled in Australia since stricter deportation laws came into place in 2014.
Some have spent the bulk of their lives in Australia and have no connection with New Zealand, raising questions about the rights being afforded to Kiwi ex-pats.
Mr Dutton says there's been no breach of human rights and that all countries have the right to deport criminals.
Australian Associated Press
