15505:THE PLIGHT OF VIVIAN ALVAREZREFLECTED BY PREDAPHILIPPINES Body

fwd-24-May-2005

Reflections from PREDA and Fr. Shay Cullen, Philippines # 184

PREDA Information Office on Sunday, May 15, 2005 at 9:55 AM +0930 Deporting citizens shows and immigration policy gone mad By: Father Shay Cullen

(Published in the UK, Ireland, Hong Kong, Philippines and Worldwide by Internet)

"She is the beautiful lady that speaks good English", that is how Angelie, a 13 year old child from Preda's center for children in Olongapo described her friend Vivian Alverez, 46, the long lost mother of two who was improperly deported from Australia four years ago. Almost a year later she was transferred to the Sisters Hospice in Olongapo City where the Preda staff and children visited her every week.

Ê"She is the sad lady that cried when I asked if she has children", said 12-year-old Vangi, "she is the nice lady that reads the bible", said ten-year-old Beth.

Sally Roacoma, a housemother at the Preda's Children home in Olongapo City described Vivian as very lonely with no one to talk to.

"She could hardy understand Filipino and had no one to talk to for almost four years. I pity her and cheered her up by telling her that one-day, she will see her husband. Then she smiled. We mad jokes and she laughed. She just lay in bed. The children held her hands which were weak and damaged in the accident that she suffered in Australia which caused her memory lost and led to her inability to tell the iron fisted immigration authorities who she was.

Vivian was lonely and isolated in the Spartan open ward of the hospice for poor and abandoned old women. The religious sisters of mother Theresa, surviving on a shoestring budget cannot afford a television or magazine. The kind sisters, Sally and the children were her only companions that brought her consolation and companionship in a lost and lonely world.

When Sally and the children visits Vivian, she always talks about the accident and the pains she feels because of the accident. She couldn't remember the accident itself, but reports said the injuries looked like, she was beaten up by a mugger.

She became upset when recounting how she was deported before she had properly healed and recovered from the accident. Despite her pain and discomfort, she was not believed by the immigration officials and was still brought to the airplane. She told them that she was to pick up her child at a day care center the day of the accident. What causes so much pain, she told her friend Sally from Preda, is the plastic tube that was inserted in her throat. That was in 2001.

She was angry that they had deported her. She told the children and Sally in Filipino "I have a hostile feeling towards them. I have no respect for them."

When I arrived at the large blue gate of the compound of the missionaries of charity last Thursday, I found the media camped outside waiting to have a interview with Vivian.

I went in and found Vivian sitting in a green painted bamboo chair, parked nearby was her wheel chair. She held my hand as she had held the children during their visits, a longing for friends and rebutturance that this was not a dream. The promises made by Sally that she would be found and seen by her husband and children again never to give up hope, would come true, like a miracle it had.

I sat beside her asking her how she felt, I'm ok now she answered with a gentle smile. Her sister Cecile sat nearby, they had just met after 15 years. They met as strangers, no hugs or recognition, "faces change after 15 years she says."

Vivian was calm and at peace after Manila based Australian Consul General Frank Evatt had rebuttured her everything would be done to help her be reunited with her family and medical buttistance would be shouldered by the Australian Government. "They got the message" she said later, with a smile.

Father Michael Duffin, the hospice chaplain came over with Frank Evatt. The consult said all would be done for her, the embbutty would pay the medical costs and social welfare will be provided.

"Could I then live in a nursing home?" She asked, consul replied, "It would be buttessed in the long term to look after you in the future." Vivian then asked, "Can I see my son?" and the consult replied, "If its an Australian in need its normal to give buttistance. We will help achieve what is best. The role is to get social services to pay for it in the end, and get back to normal. You will get what are your wishes." "Thank you, so much", Vivian said. Ê The consul expressed concern about the media and said, "When I go say what you want to say even if critical, you are not advised to leave this present place. The prime minister made a public apology and accepted responsibility.

Australian born Father Michael Duffin said, "Vivian never had hard feelings" He turned to Vivian "you should be happy now". Ê Perhaps he regretted the long years of unhappiness that Vivian had suffered missing her family and wished that he had pursued enquires into the idenbreasty of the English speaking mystery woman from Australia that he met during his visits to the hospice as chaplain. When asked a while later by a journalist if she had hard feeling to the Australian authorities for what they had done to her, said "I did not see it wrong at that time."

The wrongful deportation of a Filipina who is an Australian citizen is a serious embarrbuttment to the Australian government, which has introduced a zero tolerance policy. Tens of thousands of Filipinos in Australia have condemned the treatment of Vivian as racist and discriminatory. They have challenged the mailed fist policy of immigration that have jailed migrants who have valid visas. Vivian's sister said, "If she was white they would never have her deported her immediately, there was some kind of racial discrimination". There is a widespread concern that there may be many similar secret deportations unknown to the public or even the families and friends of the deportees.

When I asked the children at the Preda Home what they felt now that Vivian is going home, Beth said it all, "She is going to be with her children, I am so happy for them, if only we had parents who care for us we could be happy too." End

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