Gay Brisbane man Ali Choudhry given temporary halt on deportation as tribunal hears case

Updated

A gay man living in Brisbane has won a temporary reprieve from being deported to Pakistan where he could be jailed for his sexuality.

Ali Choudhry has been living in Brisbane for four years with his partner, Brisbane neuroscientist Dr Matthew Hynd.

He is due to be deported after his application for a partnership visa was refused by Immigration Minister Scott Morrison.

His supporters say he is at risk of being jailed for his sexuality in Pakistan, where he does not read the language and has few contacts because he grew up in the United States.

Mr Choudhry and Dr Hynd were one of the first gay couples in Queensland to register their civil union on March 12, 2012.

Despite this, Mr Choudhry says the Government has ruled it does "not consider that you are in a long-standing relationship".

He has now lodged an appeal to the Migration Review Tribunal (MRT) and the Immigration Department says he can remain in Australia on a bridging visa while the appeal is considered.

"A bridging visa is granted whilst an application is being processed. At no time was Mr Chaudry in danger of being deported," a spokeswoman for the Immigration Minister said.

Mr Choudhry says he met with authorities on Tuesday morning.

"The official told us that until MRT makes their decision I'm OK to stay in the country," he said.

"But he was adamant not to give us anything in writing even though we asked him several times."

Mr Choudhry was born in Pakistan but grew up in New Jersey in the United States before going to university in Canada.

The spokeswoman for Mr Morrison says same-sex partners are assessed no differently than de facto heterosexual couples.

She says Mr Choudhry did not satisfy the requirements for a partnership visa.

"Mr Choudhry came to Australia as a student in 2009. He applied for a further student visa in March 2011 but was refused as he had not enrolled in his course," the spokeswoman said in a statement.

"He was then unlawfully in Australia for four months before lodging a partner visa application."

On his crowd-funding project on Pozible to raise funds for the MRT appeal, Mr Choudhry says his student visa paperwork was never received during the chaos of the Brisbane floods in 2011.

Mr Choudhry and Dr Hynd were one of the couples who lost everything in the flooding.

The Immigration Department says because Mr Choudhry did not hold a "substantive visa" at the time he did not satisfy the requirements for a partnership visa.

"He needed to provide compelling reasons why he should be granted the visa while onshore in spite of being in Australia unlawfully," the spokeswoman said.

If Mr Choudhry is deported he will attempt to get a tourist visa so that he can stay with friends in either the US or Canada. However, the visa would only last three months.

120,000 people sign petition given to Scott Morrison

A petition on his behalf with more than 120,000 signatures was delivered to the Immigration Minister's Sydney office on Tuesday.

Ipswich man Paul Toner started the petition after hearing about Mr Choudhry's plight and says the response has been overwhelming.

"We had no idea this is the response we were going to get," he said.

"But I think the moral clarity around this cause, the fact that it's just something so wrong, the fact that Australians believe that these two guys need a fair go - a good old Australian concept - has driven the success of this petition."

Mr Toner says there is still time to convince Mr Morrison to reverse his decision.

"People have responded in a massive way to this. They've given a lot of support to this cause," he said.

"We've still got a day and a bit for the Australian Government to do the right thing.

"We're hoping that we can have some sort of influence and we're hoping Ali will get at least a stay until he gets to appeal some of the decisions."

Topics: immigration, community-and-society, lgbt, activism-and-lobbying, government-and-politics, brisbane-4000, australia, pakistan

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