MELBOURNE, Australia — A Canadian man, who has waged a lengthy legal battle and hunger strikes to stay in Australia, was deported from the country Wednesday, his supporters said.

Ziad Chebib, 54, was put on a flight to Canada, the group said in an email to The Canadian Press. It was not immediately clear which city he was heading for.

The Lebanese-born Canadian citizen has been living in the country for more than a decade.

Chebib, who has a large extended family in Australia, has been fighting to stay there since being told in 2006 that the executive visa he had arrived on was no longer valid.

Australian officials were about to deport him in December but gave him a temporary reprieve at the last minute.

One of his sons, Frank, told the Australian Associated Press that his father will continue his protest outside the Australian Embassy in Ottawa once he is back in Canada.

Chebib has said he tried to appeal to Canadian diplomats last year, but was rebuffed. He said the diplomats told him they had no say in an Australian immigration matter.

Chebib emigrated to Canada from Lebanon in 1976, becoming a citizen and starting up a limousine business in Calgary.

Later he and his family moved to Australia because two of his siblings already lived there.