Elderly woman deported after Australian visa bungle
March 08 2010 by Liam Clifford
A 92-year-old woman from Melbourne has been told she can no longer live in Australia after a mistake was made on her application for an Australian visa in 1996.
Despite appeals to the Australian Federal Government, Irene Joseph
was forced to leave the country on Friday evening. She was accompanied by her
son, Edward Joseph.
An oversight by the Immigration Department in 1996
meant that Mrs. Joseph, who had earlier been granted Australian residency, was
given a temporary Australian visa when she returned to the country after
spending some time abroad. This was despite the fact that she had previously
been granted residency. This meant she could not act as a sponsor for her son,
who is also her full-time carer.
Rather than face detention in Australia,
Mr. Joseph chose to leave for Sri Lanka and he had no option but to take his
elderly mother with him.
The Josephs’ lawyer, Murray Gerkens, a former
Victorian magistrate who once headed the Refugee Review Tribunal, expressed his
dismay that Australian Immigration Minister Chris Evans has ignored the Josephs’
pleas for assistance: "What's to be gained? What's to be lost is our reputation
as an open, generous society? I just cannot understand this," he said.
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