Fil-Australian's Deportation Stirs Up Political Storm

The wrongful deportation of a Filipino-Australian has triggered a political blizzard in Australia, causing a huge embarrassment for the John Howard government. The case has exposed an immigration “culture that views everyone as an enemy,” among others.

BY CAESAR BEN BASAN A. BAROÑA
Bulatlat

SYDNEY, Australia - The wrongful deportation of a Filipino-Australian has triggered a political blizzard in Australia, causing a huge embarrassment for the John Howard government. The case has exposed an immigration “culture that views everyone as an enemy,” the bungling practices of Australian and Philippine authorities and a discriminating mandatory detention policy in Australia’s immigration policies and practices. Filipino community groups, human rights advocates and Australian opposition leaders have variously called the mistreatment an “apparent mishandling of human beings who have never deserved such treatment” and “amounting to racism and sexism and a blatant disregard of women’s and human rights.”

Vivian Solon

Wrongful deportation

Vivian Alvarez Solon, also known as (aka) Vivian Young (her married name), was reported missing after failing to fetch her son in Queensland, Australia in February 2001. She was later found in Lismore, New South Wales in a gutter in April that year. Suffering spinal, neck and head injuries she was brought to the Lismore Base Hospital and then transferred to a Sydney hospital. A month later, she was sent back to Lismore for rehabilitation in a private hospital.

An account claims she was involved in a car accident, but a social worker who saw her said her injuries looked like a result of bashing. What was clear was that Solon was mentally distraught, as she could not explain herself and defend her rights. She told hospital staff she was Australian but they did not believe her since she could not produce an Australian passport.

Three days after her hospital release in July 2001, she was deported, despite medical warnings she was not fit to travel and a seizure that was reportedly witnessed by Immigration officials. The Philippine embassy interviewed her before she left and assumed she had Philippine citizenship. Solon’s deportation was facilitated by travel documents approved by the embassy. An Australian police officer escorted her to Manila and is said to have handed her over to someone from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA).

For four years, Solon was left in the care of nuns of the Mother Teresa Missionaries of Charity in Olongapo City, 126 kms north of Manila, in the company of the frail and the dying.

Now it is know that for 18 years prior to her deportation, Solon, formerly married to Robert Young, had been living in Australia. She has two children, one now living with her former husband and the other in foster care. Reports said she was suffering from physical and mental abuse.

In September 2003, the Australian Immigration Department, headed by Sen. Amanda Vanstone, apparently found out its mistake. By then, the Australian government could not find where Vivian was in the Philippines. The department in statements to Australian media previously maintained that Solon’s case was only discovered in the previous weeks.

Australian authorities asked the Philippine branch of Interpol to look for Solon, but couldn’t find her. The Philippine branch failed to find even the employee to whom Solon was turned over four years ago.

She was found in the Olongapo hospice after its chaplain, Australian Mike Duffin, recognized Vivian after watching satellite television news about the search for her. Australian Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone, in an interview with Australian radio, stopped short of accusing Duffin of delaying contact with Australian authorities.

Vivian’s half-sister, Cecil Solon, went for her in the convent. Vivian Solon was reported to have difficulty recognizing her half-sister at first, attributed to trauma.

Calls for a Royal Commission

The search for Vivian Solon has added sparks to the Federal government’s system of dealing with mentally-ill patients and the Australian Immigration system. Mental health experts blame the federal immigration system for Solon’s mistreatment.

Psychiatric expert Ian Hickie said in media interviews that people with mental illnesses often had difficulty answering questions about their personal details and would be mistaken for illegal immigrants by officials who did not recognize their symptoms.

"Additionally, if they do not speak English or they don't look Anglo-Saxon, the danger is there will be an assumption about illegality," he said. "If the question is never asked, 'Do they have a medical or psychiatric explanation?' or if the expertise is never provided, the danger of a mistake is high," he added.

The Howard government has apologized to Solon. It has also set in place an inquiry headed by former Australian Federal police commissioner MickPalmer.

However, Filipino-Australians and Australian opposition leaders said that the government’s incompetence calls for an independent royal commission to investigate. They have also told the Howard government to give Ms. Solon compensation and arrangements for medical care.

Filipino-Australians’ reactions

Filipino-Australians under Migrante have called for the resignation of Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone’s resignation.

Lina Cabaero, spokesperson for Migrante Philippines-Australia, said on Australian national media: "This has caused a lot of concern in the Filipino community.”

Cabaero also puzzled over the reason the Philippine government facilitated Solon’s deportation despite her physical condition. Solon was strapped to a wheelchair when she left on a plane to the Philippines. Cabaero also asked why the Philippine government didn’t look for Solon’s relatives when she was deported.

Gabriela-Australia on the other hand said: “There is something seriously worrying about a government that appears to be suspicious of women who disclose sexual violation and trafficking, of immigrants with refugee stories and those mentally ill.” The Filipino women’s group said that Vivian had been very unlucky to fall under all categories.

Gabriela-Australia also said that the “continuing institutional negligence of Vivian Solon’s case” amounts to “racism and sexism and a blatant disregard of women’s and human rights for all.”

Vivian Solon is set to go back to Australia and has not pushed for a lawsuit. She will meet her children living in Queensland.

Cabaero told Australian national media that her group’s concern at the moment is for Solon to have a guardian from the Immigration Department.

"In her vulnerable state, she needs someone to liaise with them and to help her before she comes back to Australia," she said. Bulatlat

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