MIGRANT WATCH
Wrongfully Deported Fil-Aussie
back in Australia
A Filipino-Australian
who was wrongfully deported due to a discriminating immigration culture
finally returned to Australia.
Her lawyers say they will now pursue compensation for her.
BY CESAR BEN BASAN BAROņa
Bulatlat
BACK HOME: Vivian
Alvarez Solon on her return to Australia, months after she was
wrongfully deported to the Philippines |
Sydney,
Australia She was the face that Australia disowned.
Filipino-Australian Vivian Alvarez Solon, also known as Vivian Alvarez
Solon Young, is back in Australia
after suffering wrongful deportation in the hands of Australian
immigration authorities.
In an ordeal that has
exposed a discriminating immigration culture that led to a review of
Australian immigration policies and practices and led to the Australian
Prime Minister, John Howard, apologizing for the government blunder,
Solon's lawyers will now pursue compensation for her.
Solon arrived in Sydney, delighted to finally have the chance to see her
family, especially her two boys. In front of media, hours after arrival,
she let her lawyers explain that she was happy to be back in Australia and
that she doesn't hold a grudge against the Australian government.
|
"In the tradition of heroes, Vivian does not bear a grudge against
anybody," said her chief spokesman and barrister, former Federal Court
judge Marcus Einfield to Australian media.
Solon sat in a wheelchair, showing the frailty of her physical condition.
According to one of her lawyers, George Newhouse, Solon needed a tube to
swallow, "had trouble keeping food down, nursed a partially paralyzed
hand, suffered permanent pelvic pain from a possible back injury and could
only walk a few steps."
Solon returned after the Australian Government agreed to a binding
arbitration process that would facilitate compensation for her. Solon's
lawyers will pursue damages and raise issues such as "loss of earnings and
earning capacity, medical expenses, pain and suffering, lost time with her
children and her future needs in the likely event she does not fully
recover."
Solon herself has not complained against anyone but lawyers pointed out
that "Vivian did not bring this wrong on herself."
Senator Amanda Vanstone, immigration minister, stated that she was "very
pleased" that Solon had returned after a "serious mistake."
Solon will stay in Sydney for a while to receive specialist medical
treatment.
The making of a political storm
Solon, an immigrant from the Philippines since 1988, was wrongfully
deported from Australia after she was suspected of being an illegal
immigrant. Solon was reported missing in Queensland by her former husband,
Robert Young, after she failed to fetch her son in 2001.
Solon was found in a gutter in another state, New South Wales, looking
dazed and confused. She was brought to Lismore Base hospital which said
she was suffering from head, neck and spinal injuries, believed to be a
result of assault. Mentally distraught, Solon could not assert her
identity. Australian Immigration officials decided to deport her,
facilitated by the Philippine embassy in Australia, despite her being
medically unfit to travel. She suffered seizures and traveled in a
wheelchair.
Solon was housed in a
hospice for the frail and the dying in Olongapo for four years. In the
meantime, a political storm was brewing in Australia. Solon's wrongful
deportation was discovered in 2003 by an immigration official who did not
release the information to the public.
It took almost two
years before acting Immigration Minister Peter Garrin announced that an
Australian citizen was mistakenly expelled. This led to a federal police
search. Vivian Solon's whereabouts was discovered in May 2005 after the
Olongapo hospice's chaplain, Father Mike Duffin, recognized the photos of
Solon from a satellite news program.
The case and others stirred a political storm and criticisms of an
immigration "culture that views everyone as an enemy." The Solon case
caused much embarrassment to the conservative Howard government.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard publicly apologized for the
immigration bungle. Bulatlat
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