Tennis star could be deported as early as Sunday and might be blocked from returning for three years
SYDNEY— Novak Djokovic faces deportation from Australia after a court upheld a decision to cancel his visa, ending the tennis star’s bid to defend his Australian Open title as an unvaccinated player despite the country’s tough Covid-19 vaccine requirements.
The Federal Court of Australia on Sunday ruled immigration minister Alex Hawke acted lawfully when he canceled Djokovic’s visa two days earlier citing public interest.
The men’s world No. 1 had arrived in Melbourne as the heavy favorite for a record 10th win at the Australian Open, which starts on Monday and included Djokovic as its top men’s seed. Djokovic, who spoke against vaccine mandates as recently as November, said he believed he had an exemption from rules requiring travelers to the country to have received two shots of a Covid-19 vaccine.
Djokovic had been scheduled to face fellow Serb Miomir Kecmanović on Monday in the Australian Open’s opening round. He could instead be deported from Australia as early as Sunday and might be blocked from returning for three years, by which time he will be 37 and likely past his peak as a player.
Djokovic arrived in Australia as the country grapples with a surge in cases of Covid-19, which authorities had successfully contained until recently, in big part by closing the border. Hawke said that letting the tennis star stay could stoke antivaccine sentiment.
Authorities have been encouraging as many of the country’s 26 million people as possible to get vaccinated as Australia shifts from suppressing the virus to living with it. Djokovic’s arrival in the country made him a lightning rod in the debate over Covid-19 vaccine mandates.
“His presence in Australia, given his well-known stance on vaccination, creates a risk of strengthening the anti-vaccination sentiment of a minority of the Australian community,” Hawke said in a notice to cancel Djokovic’s visa a second time.
Replies
Such people are often dependent upon medical interventions by the state...BUT, not all of us are. Those who take personal responsibility for good health...
Why would a strong person need a vaccine, when an immune system is better...?? Their narrative falls and thus, we see their panic...One size does not fit all.....When will they drop it..??
In the UK, they are beginning to drop the whole covid show...
The health minister has announced an end to vaccine passports in England...Also, the political grapevine is suggesting that come April, non-vaxxed NHS staff and care workers, will NOT be forced to take the vaccine, in order to keep their jobs and careers...
This about turn was brought about by Johnson's recent embarrassments over "partygate," and so his attempts to glean back public and party support, with REAL CONSERVATIVE POLICIES, rather than globalist, lefty police-state policies...
I'm also hoping that he drops the green codswallop, which the public are really annoyed with..
So the cowardly Australians chucked him out of their island prison....Bah...!!🙄
thank you for your support mate
I'm sorry for Novak, his family and the Serbs, in general...
Normally I would support Australia, but covid has turned them into a type of health dictatorship, with extreme single-issue views, that have divorced the human values of compassion, logic and fair play, from their hearts and minds...
Zero covid is like zero carbon: A PIPE DREAM....A grail pursuit, that never reaches it's goal.
Esoterically, this is glamour, which is based upon an illusion on the astral plane..
I really hope Australians can recapture their reputations after this covid mania has finally passed them by...China I would expect to get hysterical around public control during a "plandemic," but the Aussies..?? Well I always thought better of them....Now I'm not so certain about their ways..They seem to love authoritarianism....Not all, as we see protests in Melbourne, etc...BUT, we do see a lot of support for Morrison's response, to a sportsman's human rights violations.....Clamping down and doubling down on tyrannical control...
If you’re celebrating that, you should move to China. - a comment from Australia