The mentally disturbed Australian woman deported to the Philippines four years ago and found this week in an Olongapo hospice is welcome to return, Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said Thursday.
Vivian Solon, 42, was taken to Brisbane airport in a wheelchair and put on a plane in 2001 -- three days after a traffic accident from which she had not fully recovered.
Authorities realized their blunder two years ago, but kept it from her family in Australia and the Philippines until two weeks ago.
"If she wants to come back, of course, we will facilitate her coming back," Vanstone said. "We will facilitate assistance for her when she arrives so that she's got support and can settle in and, of course, she'll be entitled to Australian benefits."
Authorities stand accused of doing little to redress an injustice that stemmed from their believing she was an illegal immigrant because of her poor English and Asian appearance. Solon arrived in Australia in 1984.
Cecile Solon said her sister had been treated very badly by Australian authorities. But an apology is not forthcoming. Prime Minister John Howard said only that the "circumstances of this case on the available information appear very sad," adding "it will be a matter of sorrow and regret that this lady, who appears to be an Australian citizen, has been deported."
The chain of events that led to her deportation began six months earlier when she failed to pick up her son from day-care in Brisbane following an accident. She had split from her husband and reverted to her maiden name. Immigration officials failed to check that she was an Australian citizen and, just hours after being released from hospital, she was deported. Solon was taken in by Catholic nuns and has spent the last two years living in a home for the sick and dying in Olongapo, north of Manila. She has a brother in Australia, where her son, now 9, is in foster care.
The case has been referred to a government team set up last month to inquire into a similar case of Australian resident Cornelia Rau who was mistaken for an illegal immigrant and locked up for 10 months, first in a prison and then in an immigration detention center.
Rau, who had been diagnosed a schizophrenic, was believed when she said she was a tourist despite her family notifying authorities that she was a missing person. Solon's family have drawn parallels with the Rau case, saying that racism explains why German-born Rau was held in the country for 11 months while Philippines-born Solon was deported after just three days.
"I am furious," Cecile Solon said. "I just feel there was some kind of racial discrimination. There are questions to be answered."
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