[LINK] Wikileak founder's passport cancelled

[Karl Auer]

On Mon, 2010-05-17 at 14:42 +1000, Kim Holburn wrote:
> I don't think it's been cancelled.  They would have taken it and kept  
> it in that case.
> [...]
> > at Melbourne
> > Airport and was later told by customs officials that it was about to
> > be cancelled.

It feels like a beat-up to me. I reckon his passport was nearly expired,
not "about to be cancelled".

Almost-expired passports do set off alarm bells. It's happened to me -
if you lob in to some countries with less than 6 months to run on your
passport, they take a sudden, deeper interest in you. They are concerned
that without a valid, unexpired passport they may be unable to ship you
back where you came from.

I reckon he turned up with little time left, and they started making
very sure he would be *leaving*.

One thing is certain, the Australian side cannot "cancel his passport".
They can refuse to recognise it if they think it's fake or whatever, and
they can confiscate it under certain circumstances, but that's about it.

Regards, K.

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Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)                   +61-2-64957160 (h)
http://www.biplane.com.au/~kauer/                  +61-428-957160 (mob)

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