An HIV-positive refugee convicted of sexual assault will be deported this month from Winnipeg, an immigration court hearing on Friday confirmed.

Clato Mabior has been held in the Headlingley jail for more than a year as immigration officials did the paperwork. But political strife in Sudan contributed to officials keeping him in Canada.

Madit Kuet argued for Mabior to be able to remain in Canada. (Louise Charette/CBC)

He was was convicted in 2008 of two counts of aggravated sexual assault for failing to disclose to sexual partners that he was HIV positive. He was found guilty of having unprotected sex with six females, including a 12-year-old.

None were infected as a result of their contact with him.

Mabior successfully appealed for a lesser sentence in 2010. His lawyer, Iain MacNair, argued thatmedical tests showed Mabior's level of infection was low between 2002 and 2004, the time the sexual encounters took place.

Consequently, it meant the risk to Mabior's sexual partners was low, he argued.

The legal test to prove aggravated sexual assault is that the victim must be at significant risk of serious bodily harm, MacNair argued, and in Mabior's case, that risk wasn't established beyond a reasonable doubt.

Clato Mabior's deportation is expected to happen in mid-February.

Following the appeal, Mabior completed his sentence at Stony Mountain Institution and was then transferred to Headingley where he's been held ever since on a Canada Border Services warrant.

Members of the local Sudanese community argued Friday for him to stay, citing poor medical care in Sudan.

That, and Mabior's illness, guarantees he won't survive long, said Madit Kuet.

"I feel it is immoral to send someone to a place where you know he's not going to survive," Kuet said.

Community members at Friday's hearing also offered to house Mabior until he is deported, so he could at least get out of jail.

But the court ruled he is still a flight risk.

"He's like my best friend and it's sad that he's leaving Canada. I just wish that they let him out so he could say goodbye to all of his friends," said Andrea Bunn.

Mabior will stay in Headingley until his deportation. That's expected to be Feb. 15.