The lawyer for a Papuan activist facing deportation from Vanuatu says his client has a right to remain the country he has lived in for two decades.
The Papuan activist Andy Ayamiseba's appeal case against his deportation order begins today in the Court of Appeal.
In April Vanuatu's Supreme Court upheld a government order to deport Mr Ayamiseba after the Minister for Internal Affairs ruled him a risk to national security in February.
The deportation order was made under a recent amendment to the Immigration Act, giving ministerial power to deport anyone without notice.
But Mr Ayamiseba's lawyer Felix Laumae Kabini says his client should have a chance to defend himself against allegations central to his deportation.
"The principal section of the Immigratin Act of Vanuatu says that is somebody's removed from Vanuatu, he has the right to be heard. That is in the principal section. The amendment never took away that section."
