A 51-year-old man is stuck in a detention centre and awaiting deportation to the United Kingdom due to new immigration laws - despite moving to Western Australia when he was just one year old.

Ian Wightman is one of countless people affected by recent changes to the Australian Immigration Act, which states that any foreigners who serve a prison sentence longer than a year will automatically have their visas revoked, the ABC reported.

Last year Mr Wightman was jailed for 15 months on a charge of starting a bushfire, and upon release in September was immediately apprehended and kept at a WA detention centre.

On Wednesday he was allegedly flown to Christmas Island without warning at 3am, where he remains in limbo - awaiting deportation in a process he describes as 'mind-numbingly degrading.'

Ian Dutton, 51, has spent 50 years of his life in Western Australia but is detained in Christmas Island and facing deportation to the UK as a result of strict new immigration laws

He was last year convicted on charges of starting a scrub fire and served out a 15 month jail sentence. The new laws allows the government to revoke the visas of any foreigners that spend over a year in jail

'Very, very few people that are in detention here are because they're arch-criminals or they're meth-dealing bikie killers,' he told the ABC, from Christmas Island.

'You've got people in here for traffic offences, people that are in here that had a run-in with the law 21-and-a-half years ago.'

Mr Wightman described his immense frustration at a law he believes is unnecessarily tearing apart families and punishing people who called Australia home and had long since been rehabilitated.

Yahoo reported that Mr Wightman has returned to the UK just once since moving to Australia, and his partner of over 25 years is an Australian citizen.

Immigration officer Peter Dutton previously commented on concerns regarding the increased number of convicted criminal visa cancellations seen in the early months of 2015.

Mr Dutton stuck by the tough laws, saying in February that those who had their visas revoked 'should be removed from our shores as quickly as possible,' while adding that they were 'detracting' more than 'adding' to Australian society.

The ABC reported that Mr Wightman had never gotten around to applying for citizenship - always considering himself an Australian.

Mr Wightman's lawyer, Alisdair Putt, told Sky News that even though his client has 'strong ties' to Australia, he could end up being sent back to his place of birth, the United Kingdom.

'I've got several UK clients, so there must be a lot of others around the country,' Mr Putt said.

Mr Wightman, who is stuck in limbo on Christmas Island, described the entire deportation process as 'mind-numbingly degrading'