Australia decides that woman of 104 can no longer stay

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2005/02/24/waust24.xml&sSheet=/portal/2005/02/24/ixportal.html

Australia's stance on illegal immigrants came under renewed scrutiny yesterday when it emerged that a 104-year-old Chinese woman who has lived in the country for a decade has been refused a visa to remain.

Hu Cui Yu received notice from the immigration department in the same week John Howard, the Prime Minister, sent her a letter congratulating her on turning 104.

Mrs Hu, originally from Harbin in north-east China, came to Australia on a 12-month tourist visa in 1995 to visit her adopted daughter.

At the end of her visit, she found she could not leave because every airline she approached deemed her too frail to fly back to China.

[demnan]

1. Weird!

Too frail to fly home, can't stay in Australia. I guess the poor soul will just have to swim back.

[Spinzonner]

2. Feed her to a Dingo

"The Dingo ate my Granny"

[rooboy]

3. Not true - she's being allowed to stay in Australia.

Although with "Mrs Creosote" Amanda Vanstone as immigration minister you can never be certain. She's a real bitch.

[Djinn]

4. also to be completely fair

the family did push the decision - they knew when she originally arrived that she would not be granted citizenship and would therefore not be entitled to Medicare (very few countries accept many octogenarians as immigrants) the immigration department kind of let her case "slide" so that she could remain here but the family wanted her to get the benefits of citizenship and pushed for the case to be heard, the outcome was only ever going to be a denial.

I've been sabre rattling on refugee/immigration issues for a few years now and have spent a lot of time visiting detention centres etc but this case isn't quite so "mean government" as some others - there's no way this woman would have got citizenship under a Labor government either.

[Esra Star]

5. She won't be chucked out

but the family will have to be responsible for her.
She will be on a tourist visa forever.
imho