Bulldogs battle to overturn ban on Fijian
Bulldogs battle to overturn ban on Fijian
Nick Sheridan | January 30, 2009
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/dogs-battle-ban-on-fijian/2009/01/29/1232818640132.html
THE Western Bulldogs are continuing to fight the Government's decision to ban a Fijian footballer from entering Australia this month because of his father's ties to the Fijian military.
Inoke Ratu was to visit Australia last week to train with the Bulldogs, who signed Ratu and one other Fijian, Solomoni Loki, on development scholarships during a scouting trip last year.
While Loki was able to come to Australia, Ratu's visa application was rejected because of a Department of Foreign Affairs restriction on the families of officers in the Fijian military. Ratu's father serves as a desk officer in the Fijian Army.
A department spokeswoman said yesterday the ban was aimed at "supporters of the interim regime in Fiji and their close associates, in order to encourage the regime to return Fiji promptly to democracy and the rule of law".
The department also said earlier this month that: "The guiding principle in formulating Australia's response has been that, as far as possible, Australia will not take any actions that would hurt the ordinary people of Fiji."
The Bulldogs' recruiting manager, Simon Dalrymple, said the club would continue to try to get the decision overturned.
The club has enlisted the help of the executive director of the Australian Fiji Business Council, Frank Yorn, who wrote to Foreign Minister Stephen Smith this week asking him to overturn the decision.
But a department spokeswoman said yesterday that Ratu's case was not up for review. "This case was carefully considered. There is no intention to reconsider or review it," she said.
But Dalrymple said he remained hopeful, as Ratu's father had not played a role in the military coup that brought Fiji's interim Prime Minister, Frank Bainimarama, to power in 2006.
Dalrymple said that Loki's visit last week showed just how important training with the club was to his football development.
"It was pretty exciting to see him out here and to see him improve so much during the week," he said.
"And we look at Inoke, who is 199 centimetres and super quick and has really taken to the training program that we've put in place for him in Fiji. We would just love to see him out here because being in an AFL environment is going to really fast-track his development."