Convicted boat race protester Trenton Oldfield wins fight against deportation from Britain

Updated

An Australian jailed for disrupting one of the world's most famous boat races has escaped deportation after arguing he did not want to expose his wife and daughter to racism in Australia.

Trenton Oldfield disrupted last year's annual Oxford-Cambridge boat race in London, when he swam out into the River Thames to protest "entrenched elitism".

Mr Oldfield, 37, was convicted of public nuisance and sentenced to six months in prison over the protest - the first time in 158 runnings that the race had been interrupted by a swimmer.

The Home Office, or interior ministry, later deemed his presence in Britain as "undesirable", rejecting his application for a spousal visa and ordering him to leave the country.

Mr Oldfield, who has lived in Britain since 2001, appealed against the decision at the Asylum and Immigration Tribunal.

He based his appeal partly on a claim that his British wife, Deepa Naik, and their five-month-old daughter would face discrimination if they were forced to move back with him.

"Australia to Deepa... is a particularly racist country," he said.

"There are particularly racist attacks on people of Indian descent."

Mr Oldfield said that while most of it was "water cooler" or unintentional racism, some Indians in Australia have been burned and physically assaulted.

"I don't think I could put either Deepa or my child through that," he said.

He also told the tribunal his inspiration for the race stunt came while he was looking after his wife's father, who was dying from cancer.

"I think I was vulnerable in terms of realising how short life can be," an emotional Mr Oldfield said, in between sobs.

'Delighted' Oldfield calls for rethink of deportation laws

Judge Kevin Moore agreed with his lawyer, Stephanie Harrison, who argued that Mr Oldfield's good work in the community outweighed the inconvenience caused by his protest, which he has vowed never to repeat.

Ms Harrison said the stunt only caused minimal disruption to the race, which was able to get under way again within 25 minutes.

"He has been trying ... to make a difference to people's lives who are on the rough end of society," she said.

"He should not be doubly punished."

After the judge ruled in his favour, Mr Oldfield called for a rethink of deportation laws.

"Deportation is an old idea. It's from another time. It's from 1,000 years ago," he said.

"We need to rethink that. The media's attention needs to be on not me any more, but the people that are going in and out of this building - that's where the real issues are.

"But I do thank you for the public interest and I'm delighted to be able to get back to work and to spend time with my family."

ABC/AFP

Topics: courts-and-trials, law-crime-and-justice, foreign-affairs, government-and-politics, england, united-kingdom, australia

First posted