SAHNI ARTICLE 3.3.21 (WORD) (DO NOT DELETE) Spring 2021 Loss of Nationality Rights 5/6/2021 7:21 PM 135 interpretation.218 The judiciary’s role was confined to applying the legislation enacted by Parliament.219 The Immigration Minister subsequently applied her discretionary powers to review Al-Kateb’s status and ordered a bridging visa in 2005.220 Al-Kateb re-entered the community. Two years later, the Applicant received a permanent visa to remain in the country.221 Therefore, the Government did not award the stateless Applicant nationality. Instead, it ceased all further prospects of unsanctioned stay by offering Al-Kateb permanent residence in Australia. This indeed was a beneficial outcome for Al-Kateb: Al-Kateb avoided detention, deportation and insecure residence status. Australia was entitled otherwise to deport Al-Kateb222 under Article 31(1) of the 1954 Statelessness Convention since Al-Kateb was an illegal alien.223 It is a matter of concern that the Al-Kateb judgment and the State, which accommodated the Applicant by granting bridging and permanent visas, do not take into account that the Applicant was neither fully stateless nor a persecuted refugee.224 (1) Al-Kateb had entered Australia wilfully and as a migrant.225 (2) He was a “stateless Palestinian”226 who had chosen to enter Australia illegally to improve his standard of living. Australia provided financial and political stability in comparison to many other countries. These factors qualified Al-Kateb as an economic migrant. Additionally, he was a “stateless Palestinian” who had grown up in Kuwait and was displaced as a result of the 1990-1991 Gulf War.227 He had resided with his family, which like all expatriates, was physically present in the country on a temporary family or work visa basis.228 Temporary residence permits are subject to 218. 219. 220. Id. ¶ 298. Id. ¶ 303. Peter Billings, Whither Indefinite Immigration in Australia? Rethinking Legal Constraints on the Detention of Non-citizens, 38 UNSW L.J. 1386, 1396-98 (2015). 221. Id. 222. See Escape from a life in limbo, supra note 204 (explaining that, while Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria and the Gaza Strip refused to accommodate him, Al-Kateb confirms that there were other countries Australia could have attempted to deport him to. “Al-Kateb remembers the Immigration Department asking: ‘Can you go to Syria or Jordan or Egypt, can you sign a paper for this?’ He says he replied: ‘Anywhere in the world you want to send me, send me. I cannot live in this place … After a while they told me we cannot find anywhere in the Middle East and suggested, what about Asia: Malaysia, Vietnam or Thailand. I told them, wherever you want.’”) 223. Al-Kateb v. Godwin (2004) 219 CLR ¶ 106 (Austl.) (“Article 31 obliges the Contracting States not to ‘expel a stateless person lawfully in their territory save on grounds of national security or public order’ (emphasis added).”) 224. See Transcript of Proceedings, Behrooz v Secretary of Dept. Immgr. & Indigenous & Multicultural Affairs, SHDB v Godwin, Minister for Immgr. & Multicultural & Indigenous Affairs v Al Khafaji [2003] HCATrans 456 (Nov. 12, 2003) (discussing applicants from similar backgrounds). 225. Al-Kateb v. Godwin (2004) 219 CLR (Austl.). 226. Id. 227. Al-Kateb v. Godwin (2004) 219 CLR (Austl.); Escape from a life in limbo, supra note 204. 228. Amiri Decree No. 17 of 1959 (Aliens Residence Law), last amended by: Law No. 6 of 2011 (Kuwait):