Australia cancels Novak Djokovic’s visa again

The Australian Immigration Minister, Alex Hawke, canceled this Friday for the second time the visa of the number one tennis player in the world, the Serbian Novak Djokovic, which gives way to his deportation.

“Today I have exercised my power under section 133C(3) of the Immigration Act to cancel the visa of Mr. Novak Djokovic based on health and law enforcement reasons as being in the public interest”, said the minister in a brief statement, noting that he “carefully” weighed the information provided by the parties.

Djokovic traveled to Melbourne on January 5 with a medical exemption that allowed him to play in the Australian Open without being vaccinated, although later the Customs authorities canceled his visa and detained him until a court ruling on Monday gave him the reason for the tennis player.

The 34-year-old Serb’s lawyers are expected to appeal this decision in court – which weighed errors and inconsistencies in the statement he made Djokovic to enter the Australia, as well as for contravening the isolation guidelines for COVID-19 in Serbia, among other issues.

Djokovic He had declared that he had not traveled in the previous 14 days, but the truth is that he had moved from Serbia to Spain, while in his country of origin he gave an interview to a French media knowing that he was positive for the COVID-19.

Djokovic He entered the draw for the Australian Open the day before, which starts on Monday, to play his first match against his compatriot Miomir Kecmanovic, although the impact if there were a new legal battle in the development of the tournament is unknown.

“The (Scott) Morrison Government is strongly committed to protecting Australia’s borders, especially in relation to the covid-19 pandemic.″, Hawke said in justifying the measure adopted after the Federal Circuit Court ordered the tennis player’s release last Monday.

That court considered that the cancellation of the visa of Djokovic a few hours after his arrival in the country, which led to his arrest, he did not respect the “procedural fairness” of the number 1 tennis player in the world, who seeks to obtain his tenth title of the Open of Australia and become the most successful tennis player in history with 21 Grand Slams.

Australia, which is holding elections this year, is fighting a spike in cases of COVID-19, which have gone from less than 2,000 daily infections in December to almost 150,000 this week, amid product shortages due to infections among essential workers.

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