The Australian government canceled Serbian tennis player Novak Djokovic’s visa for the second time. This was confirmed this Friday by Immigration Minister Alex Hawke. In an official statement, he explained that it is a decision made for reasons of “health and public order.”
But nevertheless, The Australian authorities decided to postpone Djokovic’s expulsion from the country until the Justice rules on his casereported a government lawyer.
In an urgent hearing organized this Friday, Stephen Lloyd, a lawyer for the government, told the judge that Djokovic will not be taken to a holding center before he meets with immigration authorities on Saturday. and that he will not be deported until the justice has ruled on the appeal filed by the tennis player.
“Australians have made many sacrifices during this pandemic”
The head of Immigration assured that the Australian Government is “strongly committed to protecting borders”, especially in a context where record numbers of coronavirus infections are recorded throughout the world.
“Australians have made many sacrifices during this pandemic and they hope, not surprisingly, that the result of these sacrifices will be protected,” Prime Minister Scott Morrison added in an official statement.
Djokovic’s novel in Australia
Djokovic arrived in Australia on January 5 with special medical permission to enter the country with the intention of participating in the Australian Open. The authorities retained him because he did not present the documentation proving his anticovid vaccination. For this reason, he spent four days delayed in a hotel in the Australian capital until on Monday a judge ordered his release.
The Serbian’s lawyers had submitted a statement in which they claimed that the tennis player could not be vaccinated because he tested positive for coronavirus last December. “The date of the first positive PCR test for covid was recorded on December 16, 2021,” said the document cited by the Australian media.
Australia does not allow entry to non-citizens or non-residents who are not fully vaccinated against coronavirus. What it does allow are medical exemptions, but the government considered Djokovic’s justification insufficient. The Serbian could be seen in a journalistic interview in December, when he supposedly already knew that he had tested positive for covid.
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