Day: January 9, 2022

Novak Djokovic spent a fourth day on Sunday among the unwilling occupants of Melbourne’s Park Hotel.

The tennis superstar is awaiting court proceedings on Monday that will determine whether he can defend his Australian Open title or whether he will be deported – and the world has shown keen interest in his temporary accommodation.

His fellow residents in the immigration detention hotel include refugees and asylum-seekers who are challenging their own proceedings that have all lasted much longer than Djokovic’s. So long in some cases they feel forgotten.

Djokovic’s mere presence at the hotel, a squat and unattractive building on the leafy fringe of the city’s downtown, has drawn the world’s eyes to those other residents and their ongoing struggles with the Australian immigration system.

Refugee activists have been quick to capitalize on the media attention as one of the world’s most feted athletes shares the hotel and its sparse amenities with some of the world’s most vulnerable and dispossessed people.

Djokovic was denied entry at the Melbourne airport late Wednesday after border officials canceled his visa for failing to meet its entry requirement that all non-citizens be fully vaccinated for COVID-19.

His lawyers filed court papers Saturday challenging the deportation that show Djokovic tested positive for COVID-19 last month and recovered, grounds he used in applying for a medical exemption to the country’s strict vaccination rules. A decision on his appeal is expected Monday.

Renata Voracova, a 38-year-old Czech doubles player, was detained in the same hotel over a vaccine dispute before leaving Australia on Saturday.

The Park Hotel was once a thriving tourist hotel, popular for its central location near Melbourne’s network of trams and across the road from the home ground of the Carlton Australian Rules Football Club.

But for the past two years it has often been referred to as the “notorious” or “infamous” Park Hotel. At the outbreak of the pandemic it was a quarantine hotel for Australians returning from overseas and reportedly a source of a delta-variant outbreak that swept Melbourne and forced the city into months of lockdown while claiming hundreds of lives.

More recently it has been home to travelers of a different kind: refugees and asylum-seekers who have been transferred for medical reasons from Australia’s off-shore detention centers on Manus Island and Nauru in the Pacific.

There are 32 asylum-seekers sharing the hotel with Djokovic. Among them is Mehdi Ali of Iran who was 15 when he made the dangerous journey to Australia by boat. He had spent the past nine years in an off-shore processing facility for asylum-seekers and refugees, and was recently moved to the Park Hotel, where armed police guard the entrance and residents cannot leave.

Mehdi says the hotel is “like a jail” with its lengthy confinement, lack of fresh air and poor food.

In October, a COVID-19 outbreak infected more than half of the hotel’s then 46 residents. In December, small fires broke out on one floor, residents were evacuated and one person was treated for smoke inhalation. Damage caused by the fires affected residents’ access to outdoor exercise areas, and asylum-seekers frequently complain they are confined to their rooms.

Refugee advocates regularly protest outside the hotel, mostly in small numbers and unnoticed by passersby. Djokovic’s sudden arrival has energized the protesters as they seek to draw global attention to the asylum-seekers and their treatment in Australia.

An Amnesty International campaign manager, Shankar Kasynathan, was among several groups protesting outside the Park Hotel on Friday. One large group of Serbian Australians protested Djokovic’s detention while another smaller group of protesters celebrated his opposition to vaccine mandates.

“The world is watching at this point because we have one of the world’s most celebrated athletes … under the same roof as the world’s most vulnerable people, namely refugees,” Kasynathan said.

“We hope that Novak Djokovic will use his influence, his support base to potentially put pressure on (Home Affairs Minister) Karen Andrews and the Australian government to end this senseless cruelty,” he added.

Australia first introduced offshore processing at Manus Island in Papua New Guinea and Nauru in 2001 as part of its “Pacific Solution” to asylum-seekers and refugees attempting to reach Australia by boat, often with the help of traffickers. Offshore processing was suspended in 2008 but resumed in August 2012.

Since July 2013, successive Australian governments have said no refugees will be resettled in Australia from Nauru or Manus Island. By mid-2021, about 1,000 refugees from the offshore centers had been resettled in other countries, including more than 900 in the United States.

Many in the offshore centers have been transferred back to Australia for medical reasons and have been detained at places like the Park Hotel.

Djokovic will be granted his freedom on Monday one way or another. If his legal challenge to the cancellation of his visa is successful he will be able to defend his Australian Open title next month. If not, he will have to return home.

For others at the Park Hotel there will be no such choice. Their wait will continue.

Source: Voice of America

The Australian government had not given tennis star Novak Djokovic an assurance that a medical exemption that he said he had to enter Australia without a COVID-19 vaccination would be accepted, government lawyers said in a court filing on Sunday.

The filing ahead of a court hearing on Monday was in defense of the government’s decision to bar entry to the world number one player over his COVID-19 vaccination status.

Djokovic is hoping to win his 21st Grand Slam at the Australian Open, starting in Melbourne on Jan. 17.

But instead of training, the Serbian player has been confined in a hotel used for asylum seekers and is challenging the decision to cancel his visa after being stopped on arrival at Melbourne Airport early on Thursday.

The drama has rocked world tennis, caused tensions between Serbia and Australia and become a flashpoint for opponents of vaccine mandates around the world.

Himself a vocal opponent of vaccine mandates, Djokovic had declined to reveal his vaccination status or reason for seeking a medical exemption from Australia’s vaccination rules. But his legal team said in a filing to the court on Saturday that the player had been granted an exemption due to having had the virus in December.

Djokovic’s legal team said he had the necessary permissions to enter Australia, including an assessment from the Department of Home Affairs that responses on his travel declaration form indicated he met the conditions for quarantine-free arrival. The government disputed this.

“This is because there is no such thing as an assurance of entry by a non-citizen into Australia. Rather, there are criteria and conditions for entry, and reasons for refusal or cancellation of a visa,” the government’s filing said.

It said the department’s email was not an assurance “that his so-called ‘medical exemption’ would be accepted”, and his responses could be questioned and verified on his arrival.

The government also challenged Djokovic’s claim for a medical exemption on the basis he had contracted COVID-19 and had recovered two weeks later.

“There is no suggestion that the applicant had “acute major medical illness” in December 2021. All he has said is that he tested positive for COVID-19. This is not the same,” the filing said.

Australia says its health department notified tournament organizing body Tennis Australia in November that a recent COVID-19 infection was not necessarily grounds for exemption in the country, as it is elsewhere. Djokovic’s lawsuit says the Department of Home Affairs wrote to him this month to say he had satisfied the requirements to enter the country.

Djokovic’s lawyers will have up to two hours to present their case from 10 a.m. (2300 GMT on Sunday) on Monday, while the government department gets two hours to present its defense from 3 p.m. The case is being heard by the Federal Circuit and Family Court.

Tennis Australia

Tennis Australia CEO Craig Tiley said in his first media interview since the furor began that his organization had spoken with federal and state officials for months to ensure the safe passage of players.

“Primarily because there is [so] much contradictory information the whole time, every single week we were talking to Home Affairs, we were talking to all parts of government to ensure that … we were doing the right thing and [following] the right process with these exemptions,” Tiley told Channel Nine television.

“The conflicting information, and the contradictory information we received, was because of the changing environment. We are in a challenging environment.”

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham, asked about the matter on Channel 9 television, said without referring directly to Djokovic that “there’s a clear difference between visas and entry requirements” and “entry requirements … sit over and above the visa conditions”.

Czech player Renata Voracova, who was detained in the same detention hotel as Djokovic and had her visa revoked after issues with her vaccine exemption, left the country without challenging her status, the Czech Foreign Ministry said.

The player has drawn strong support at home. Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic said on Saturday that Djokovic had been given gluten-free food, tools to exercise and a SIM card to stay in contact with the outside world.

“It’s a positive tone from the Australian side. The Serbian government is ready to provide all the guarantees necessary for Novak to be allowed to enter Australia, the Serbian president is also involved,” Brnabic said.

Source: Voice of America