Alvarez to Australia: 'To err is human' May 13, 2005 - 3:07PM
Wearing a brightly-coloured dress and a shy smile, wheelchair-bound Vivian Alvarez left a Philippine hospice today to begin the journey back to her family in Australia after a deportation bungle that has embarrbutted Canberra.
The 42-year-old mother-of-two was picked up by an Australian diplomat from the convent run by the Mother Teresa Missionaries of Charity in the northern city of Olongapo, where she has lived since her wrongful deportation in 2001.
The Australian government has expressed regret at Alvarez's wrongful removal, which is now being investigated as part of an inquiry into immigration bungles, and has offered to return her to Australia.
Alvarez today said she had told immigration officers before her wrongful removal that she was an Australian citizen.
But she showed little anger over the blunder.
"It was a mistake," Alvarez said, but answered "yes" when asked if she accepted the government's expression of regret. "To err is human," she added. The Queensland woman, also known as Vivian Solon and Vivian Young, now wants to return to Australia, where she lived for 18 years and has two children.
Advertisement AdvertisementPhilippine-born Alvarez was today to undergo a medical check-up and hoped to be reunited with some of her siblings at the Australian embbutty in Manila, said consul general Frank Evatt.
Alvarez has lived nearly forgotten in the care of nuns in Olongapo since 2001. The Australian government has said it tried unsuccessfully to find her after realising its mistake.
According to some accounts, Alvarez was deported as she recovered from serious injuries sustained in a car accident in northern NSW.
However Betty Graham-Higgs, a former social worker at Lismore Base Hospital, said Alvarez was found lying in the street with injuries more consistent with a beating.
Alvarez said she remembered little of the incident leading to her deportation.
"I had an accident, I told them I was an Australian citizen and that my pbuttport was not with me," she told reporters.
She said she was to have picked up one of her sons at a day care centre that day, but was instead detained by immigration authorities.
Alvarez said she had wanted to stay in Australia, but was told by authorities nobody would care for her there. She was then flown to Manila, and taken to the hospice by "an Australian woman. I don't remember her name."
Immigration Minister Senator Amanda Vanstone has said Alvarez was met at Manila airport by a woman from a local welfare organisation, who could now not be located.
Alvarez said no embbutty official contacted her while she was in the hospice. She had wanted to locate her family in Australia, but she lacked the means to do so. She did not have a telephone or money to pay for long distance calls.
Asked if she wanted to fly back to Australia and be reunited with her family, she said: "That would be nice."
"I am too sore to think," she added, when asked about her future plans. According to reports, Alvarez's first son has been in foster care for the past four years, while another son is set to finish high school.
She said she did not hold any grudges against the Australian government and did not realise until a few days ago that she had become a cause celebre in Sydney and that she was wrongfully deported.
Consul general Evatt said Alvarez would be well taken care off in Manila and given enough time to recover.
"We are going to be taking Vivian down to Manila today and we're going to do some medical examination," Evatt told reporters.
"(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."
"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," Evatt said. AFP-AAP
