The Citizenship Appeals Tribunal has ruled the Minister for Immigration was correct in not granting citizenship to a Fiji born man who had numerous criminal cases in Australia.
Kamlesh Kumar had renounced his Fijian citizenship in 2003 after he left for Australian but applied for Fijian citizenship on October 2021 which was refused on December 3 the same year.
The reasons for the refusal was that Mr Kumar failed to satisfy the minister that he was a person of good character based on Australian Federal Police records, which showed he had committed 51 criminal offences including shop lifting, common assault, obtaining money by deceit, driving while disqualified from holding a licence, providing a false name and address to police.
“It was for Kumar to satisfy the minister that he is a person of good character. This is irrespective of what he pleads that he was born in Fiji, a former citizen, has his elderly and sickly mother in Fiji who requires him to take care of her as she does not have any other care takers,” stated tribunal members Justice Anjala Wati, Justice Samuela Qica and Magistrate Tomasi Bainivalu in their April 19 ruling.
“Fiji is not under any obligation to former citizens to give them the citizenship back unless they are person(s) of good character.
“When Kumar made an application by a letter dated 15 September 2021, he stated to the Immigration Department, that he is a law-abiding citizen with no criminal records. That is not true.”
