Darko Desic: the former fugitive who spent 30 years on the run and his fight to stay in Australia

Desic had escaped from Grafton prison in 1992, with a little over a year and a half left to serve on a 44-month sentence for cultivating cannabis, because he feared being deported to Yugoslavia and conscripted into the Yugoslav army, then in the midst of a brutal civil war.

But when Covid shut down his informal work and the house he was living in was sold, Desic was left homeless, sleeping in sand dunes. He turned himself in essentially to secure a roof over his head in prison.

Magistrate Jennifer Atkinson sentenced Desic to serve the remaining 19 months of his sentence as well as an additional two months for escaping.

With his sentence set to expire on 28 December, he faces the bizarre prospect of potential removal to a country that no longer exists, given the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia dissolved in 1992.

After being resentenced, Desic applied to the governor of NSW, Margaret Beazley, to exercise her royal prerogative of mercy and commute his sentence.

But McGirr says Desic has since applied to the federal immigration minister to be considered for a visa so he can stay in the country, citing his longstanding and strong links to the community and unblemished record before and since his 1989 conviction.

The Australian Border Force has previously written to Desic to tell him that at the end of his sentence he will be taken to immigration detention before being removed from the country.

However, he cannot be removed while he has a valid visa application before the minister, and any potential removal is complicated by the fact there is no extant nation of which he is a citizen.

McGirr says there are compelling reasons for allowing Desic to stay in Australia and widespread support for him to be welcomed back into his community.

A federal government spokesperson has said the minister did not comment on individual cases.

Non-citizens sentenced to imprisonment of more than 12 months automatically have their visas cancelled under Australian law but can seek revocation of that decision. The minister holds a personal power to set aside a cancellation.

Convicted of two counts of cultivating cannabis, Desic was sentenced in 1990 to a maximum of three years and eight months in prison, with a non-parole period of 33 months.

But in July 1992, he used a hacksaw blade to cut through the bars of his cell in Grafton jail and bolt cutters to cut through the perimeter fence.

He escaped to avoid being deported at the end of his sentence to his homeland of Yugoslavia, he said later, which was then descending into civil war and from where he had fled as a teenager in the 1970s to escape compulsory military service.

Yugoslavia ceased to exist as a country in April 1992. The Adriatic port town of Jablanac where Desic grew up is now part of Croatia. Desic may have a claim to Croatian citizenship but proving his historical connection may be difficult after more than four decades away.

In 29 years as a fugitive in Australia, Desic built a life on the margins.