MANILA, 14 May 2005 — Filipino-Australian Vivian Alvarez, who was wrongly deported to the Philippines four years ago, yesterday accepted Canberra’s apology and looked forward to being reunited with her family in Australia.
Alvarez, also known as Vivian Solon, was fetched by Australian Embassy officials from the Mother Teresa Missionaries of Charity in Olongapo City, 75 kilometers northwest of Manila, where she has stayed since being deported to the Philippines in 2001.
Her case has become a controversial issue in Australia amid a raging debate over the government’s immigration policies, which have been criticized by international rights groups as being too harsh and discriminatory.
Alvarez is undergo a medical checkup in Manila, where she would also hopefully be reunited with her relatives, said Australian Consul General Frank Evatt.
Alvarez walks with a crutch, has to be moved around in a wheelchair and has difficulty using her fingers and an arm. She also appears to be suffering some memory loss and has frequent headaches.
“We will make sure she is okay and give her an opportunity to meet with some of her family and to try to do some planning for her future,” he said. “What we need to do is give Vivian a little bit of space and with dignity leave this place.”
“A lot has happened to her in quite a short period of time and we are just trying to do the best thing by her,” he added.
Alvarez, a 42-year-old mother of two, was deported by mistake to the Philippines as she recovered from serious injuries sustained in a car accident even though she had lived in Australia since 1984.
Immigration officials realized their blunder two years ago, but kept it from her family in Australia and the Philippines until two weeks ago.
Alvarez said she accepts the Australian government’s apology and has no hard feelings for the error. “It was a mistake,” she told reporters before leaving the hospice in Olongapo. “To err is human.”
Asked about her future plans, she said, “I’m too sore to think.”
But she added that it “would be nice” to return to Australia and be reunited with her family, especially her two children.
The deportation blunder has embarrassed Canberra, which recently admitted that immigration officials had wrongfully detained 33 people between July 2003 and February 2004.
She said she remembers telling immigra-tion authorities in 2001 that she was an Australian citizen when they picked her up from a hospital after her car accident.
“I told them I was an Australian citizen and that my passport was not with me,” she said, adding that when she told immigration officials that she wanted to stay in Australia, they told her that nobody would care for her there. Alvarez was then flown to Manila where she was met by an unidentified Australian woman who brought her to the hospice for the sick and the dying in Olongapo.
In Brisbane, Alvarez’s brother, Henry Solon, said he wanted an explanation.
“She is an Australian citizen. Four years have gone, they have ruined her life,” he said. “We were really afraid that she would be found dead.”
