Novak’s gone home, but this man’s still locked up

The world watched on as the Australian government ripped up world tennis number one Novac Djokovic’s visa. He was taken into detention, an urgent court hearing convened, and eventually deported. The whole saga was over and done with in less than a week.

While Novak was in detention, in the Park Hotel in Melbourne, we learned there are refugees holed up in the same hotel. One of them, Mehdi, has been in the refugee process in Australia for almost ten years after arriving in Australia seeking asylum as a 15-year-old. He's still in detention, almost a decade later.

We speak to Mehdi from his Melbourne hotel room; and we also speak with Carolyn Graydon, principal lawyer at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, to find out why Mehdi and his colleagues can’t – or don’t – get the same rushed process as Novak Djokovic.

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