Pio Steve said he had been locked up for two and a half years in Villawood Detention Centre awaiting deportation.

A 49-year-old career criminal who hasn't set foot in New Zealand since leaving aged just 13 months is about to be deported from Australia.

Pio Steve moved to Australia with family as a baby and, despite having no family or friends here, is about to be sent back by the Australian Government.

He has lived there with his immediate family, and it's unclear whether he has any family left in New Zealand.

Pio Steve, bottom right, in a picture taken inside the Villawood Detention Centre.

But with Australia's continued clampdown on non-citizens with criminal records, Steve, like many other Kiwis, will soon find himself deported after the country implemented tough changes to its Migration Act at the end of 2014.

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Steve's 30 year rapsheet includes stints in prison for burglary, violence, and driving offences. His lawyer said he had turned to crime after becoming a heroin addict as a teenager.

SAM SACHDEVA / FAIRFAX NZ Labour leader Andrew Little and former MP Phil Goff visit the Villawood Detention Centre in 2015.

His Absorbed Persons visa, which he obtained in 1994, was cancelled after he was sentenced to three years imprisonment in May 2015.

Steve made a last-ditch attempt to stay and pleaded with the Administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia to remain there.

"If I were forced to leave Australia, I don't know what I would do," he told the tribunal.

SIMON MAUDE/FAIRFAX NZ Police said they would work with other agencies to manage Steve's arrival.

"I can't imagine what it would do to my family, especially my mother. She is getting older, and I need to take care of her.

"I can't imagine how I would survive in New Zealand. Everything I know is here. I don't know anyone or anything about the country there. I wouldn't have any support."

He said he had spent the last two and a had years in Sydney's Villawood Detention Centre and spent $12,000 on his appeal.

DAVID WHITE / FAIRFAX NZ Labour MP Kelvin Davis says not enough is being done to support returning criminals.

But in a decision released last month, the tribunal ordered him to be expelled.

Labour's Corrections spokesman, Kelvin Davis, said Steve was a "product" of Australia.

"He went to school and was shaped in Australia. He's an Australian. It's unfair of them to dump him here, because it makes New Zealand less of a safe place," said Davis.

It is unclear when he'll be deported, but a New Zealand police spokesman said they would continue to work with relevant agencies such as the Department of Corrections, Ministry of Social Development and Ministry of Health to manage the arrival of returning offenders from Australia and other countries.

"The priority for Police is to ensure community safety and assist agencies responsible for facilitating their integration into the community.

"The Returning Offenders (Management and Information) Act enables information to be required from returning offenders, and the supervision of eligible individuals. When a person is not eligible under the Act, Police still assesses the risk of that individual and puts in place any necessary preventative measures within the current law."

A friend of Steve's, Leroy Blair, 26, who spent several months with him at the Villawood Detention Centre before also being deported, said they'll never be allowed back in to Australia to visit their families.

"I met Pio's mum. She's nice. But just like me he'll never see his family again unless they come to New Zealand. And I can't expect my family to just pack up everything and leave because I was kicked out.

"This is not hurting only us, but our families as well. We've been ripped apart," said Blair.

Blair said he had been back in the country for three months, and was struggling to find a proper job and accommodation. Blair believes Steve will also find it near impossible to resettle in his country of birth.

Last month Stuff revealed that a staggering 737 offences have already been committed by 197 deportees between January 2015 and December 12, 2016.

Kelvin Davis said the fact that these deportees are basically foreigners in their country of birth, and lack a proper support structure, indicates they're likely to reoffend.

"We'll have to wait two or three years, and not just a few weeks, to see how many of them end up reoffending."