The Australian government has granted a 104-year-old Chinese woman the right to remain in the country after she lost her bid to gain a valid visa through the courts.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone personally intervened in the case late on Tuesday to grant Hu Cui-Yu permanent residency after a tribunal refused her appeal for an aged-relative visa.
Transport risk
Hu arrived in Australia a decade ago to visit her daughter on a one-year visa but when she wanted to leave no airline would take the risk of transporting the frail and elderly woman back to Harbin in China's northeast.
When her case came to government attention, after she attempted to access free medical care, Hu had already been living in the country illegally for some time.
Hu was given temporary bridging visas until her case could be resolved.
No intention
Vanstone said there was never any intention to send the woman home and her family were informed that they could apply to the minister once all other legal avenues had been completely exhausted.
"There was never any decision that Mrs. Hu was going home," Vanstone said yesterday.
But the minister said it was clear in the law that anyone resident illegally in Australia since 2001 was "going to be battling to get a visa."
"But they [immigration officials] realized then that she was 100, she was a frail old Chinese lady and the best thing was to say to her; `Look, why don't you put an application in.'"
On hearing that the minister had personally intervened to grant her a visa, Hu said through a translator: "I wish her [Vanstone] a lucky and long life and hope she lives until 100."
Hu's case, which prompted Chinese diplomats here to urge the Australian government to show compassion, was also welcomed by parliamentarians.
`Incomprehensible'
"It's incomprehensible that we would send this 104-year-old woman back to a place that she barely knows, and as I understand it there are some doubts that the airline would carry her in any case so it makes no sense," Australian Democrats leader Lyn Allison said.
The case has drawn attention to the conservative government's tough stance on immigration, which includes the mandatory, unlimited detention of illegal immigrants, many of whom spend years in remote detention camps awaiting resolution of their cases.
Hu lives in the southern city of Melbourne with the family of her adopted daughter. She is believed to have no living relatives left in China.
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