The three ways the Australian government could cancel Djokovic’s visa

There are three potential routes the Australian government could take to cancel Novak Djokovic’s visa, an immigration expert says.

The federal government is expected to make a decision on whether to cancel the Serbian tennis star’s visa today.

Former Immigration Department deputy security and expert in immigration and population, Abul Rizvi, says with the new information which emerged yesterday — that an error was made in Djokovic’s travel declaration — there’s a “50/50” chance the government will move to deport him.

Mr Rizvi says there are three options available to the federal government to cancel Djokovic’s visa.

“One is cancellation personally by the Minister in the national interest. That is an unusual route to take but it is an option,” he told Stephen Quartermain and Emily Power.

“The second option is to cancel on the basis that he provided false information on Australian government forms — that is a more common basis for cancellation.”

The third option is cancellation of Djokovic’s visa on character grounds.

“I’ve looked through the character provisions very closely and the only provision i think they could use would be the so called general conduct provisions of the character test, but that would be quite unusual. I can’t remember a case in the past where a government has cancelled on that basis,” Mr Rizvi said.

If Djokovic was to appeal a decision to cancel his visa, and that appeal request was accepted, he would remain in detention until the court had time to consider the matter.

Mr Rizvi expects that “would drag on well past the weekend.”

Press PLAY below to hear more about how Djokovic’s visa could be cancelled

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