Lal was not deported: Immigration

November 07, 2009 11:40:32 AM

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The director of Fiji’s Immigration Department says Australian-based Fiji academic Dr Brij Lal was not deported but left the country voluntarily this week.

However, Major Nemani Vuniwaqa would not say whether Lal was allowed back into Fiji.

“That’ll depend,” he told FijiLive.

“If there’s reports reaching Immigration that he has breached the conditions of his visa, we can stop him from entering the country.”

Lal was quoted in overseas media Thursday as saying he had been given 24 hours to leave Fiji earlier this week.

Vuniwaqa said the Fiji-born academic was an Australian national on a visitor’s permit and flew out of Fiji on Thursday morning.

“Therefore we can say that he left voluntarily. The deportation process was not invoked.”

“No, there was no contact with Dr Lal by Immigration,” he said when asked if officials from the department had been in touch with Lal, who was reportedly due to return next month to Canberra where he is based at the Australian National University.

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