Oz refusal for woman of 104

A 104-YEAR-OLD Chinese woman faces deportation from Australia after a government tribunal yesterday rejected her final appeal for a permanent visa.

Cui Yu Hu arrived in the southern city of Melbourne to visit family in 1995 on a 12-month tourist visa but no airline would take her back to China because she was too old and frail.

The widow - who received a letter of congratulations from Prime Minister John Howard when she turned 104 earlier this year - remained in Australia illegally for another four years before she applied for an aged parent visa that would allow her to stay permanently and receive free health care.