Australia halts deportation of woman, 104

THE Australian government intervened yesterday to prevent a 104-year-old Chinese woman from being deported from Australia, after officials rejected her final appeal for a visa to stay with family here.

Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said she was overturning an immigration tribunal's decision this week. The minister's move means that Cui Yu Hu can stay as a permanent resident with an aged parent visa, enjoying free health care.

Cui Yu Hu praised Ms Vanstone for the decision: "I wish her a lucky and long life and hope she lives until 100," she said, speaking through an interpreter. "She has a good heart, she will live very long."

Hu arrived in the southern city of Melbourne to visit her 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 applying for an aged parent visa.

But immigration officials said Hu was ineligible because she overstayed her initial 12-month visa.

Hu's Melbourne family adopted daughter Motoko Otani and son-in-law Bing Sen Yang appealed the decision. But the Migration Review Tribunal found on Tuesday that she was not entitled to a visa.

Ms Vanstone rejected criticism that the immigration system had left such an elderly woman threatened with deportation.

"She was discovered in 2001, having been here for five years unlawfully, under the radar," she said.