Deported Australian left son behind Print E-mail
Written by Andra Jackson   

By Andra Jackson
The Age May 7, 2005

An Australian woman mistakenly deported to the Philippines left behind a son who is in foster care in Queensland, it has been revealed.

Queensland Premier Peter Beattie said yesterday that the woman's son, now nine, was placed in foster care four years ago after his mother, Vivian Alvarez, failed to pick him up from a Brisbane creche.

Prime Minister John Howard yesterday said he was sorry about the circumstances of the woman, who was deported in late 2001 after reportedly telling Philippines consular staff in Brisbane that she had been held as a sex slave in Queensland.

Despite being listed as a missing person in Queensland at the time, the woman was deported by Australian immigration authorities to the Philippines, where she was born.

The Federal Government is now under extreme pressure over what appears to have been systemic failures in the Immigration Department.

The Government has started a so far unsuccessful search for the woman in the Philippines in the past week.

Mr Howard told Southern Cross radio: "I am very sorry if anything unfairly has happened in relation to that (the woman's case)." "On the face of it that does appear to be the case."

Mr Howard has refused to apologise about the mistaken detention of a mentally ill Australian resident Cornelia Rau, saying he would instead await the outcome of the inquiry into her detention, headed by former federal police chief Mick Palmer.

Acting Immigration Minister Peter McGauran has referred the Alvarez case and other recently discovered cases of wrongful detention to the closed inquiry into the Rau detention.

Mr Beattie yesterday called on the Howard Government to open a judicial inquiry into the detention scandals.

He said the latest case highlighted the need for a national system of listing missing people.

The Alvarez case came to light after Ms Alvarez's family in Australia - believed to be her husband - contacted the Immigration Department two weeks ago about her whereabouts.

Mr Beattie said the woman's son was placed in foster care after she failed to pick him up from the Brisbane City Hall child-care centre on February 16, 2001. The Queensland Department of Family Services reported Vivian Alvarez as missing to police on July 17, 2001. She was listed on the Queensland missing persons register under that name and also as Vivian Wilson, her married name.

It is believed she married the Australian man in the Philippines and was fleeing domestic violence when she was struck by a car in Lismore in northern NSW.

This was some months after July 2001, said Mr Beattie.

He said she was taken to a NSW hospital where she used a different name. Hospital staff could not confirm her identity and called immigration officials who could not find any records of her arrival in Australia.

"Three days later the Department of Immigration brought her to Coolangatta and arranged for Queensland police to escort her under deportation to the Philippines. She was going under a name of which Queensland police had no record," Mr Beattie said.

Yesterday, the Philippines embassy refused to confirm a report that just before she was deported its staff had interviewed the still-injured woman in a Coolangatta motel and that she claimed to have been held as a sex slave.

Queensland police yesterday declined to say if it had investigated the woman's claims, saying the matter was being investigated by the Rau inquiry.

Phil Glendenning, from the social justice Edmund Rice Centre in Sydney, said it seemed that wrongful deportation was more likely to occur if one was non-white, had poor English, or was mentally ill.- with AAP

 

Jarvis Walker     Arlec

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Featured Articles

The 'Forgotten People'

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WHEN nine-year-old "Tom" was asked to draw a picture of himself with his mother be drew her trying to strangle him.

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Bulletin Board

I had to struggle extra hard

Her doctors did not bother to enquire about my father and I.

They only listened to her stories ”

“ I grew up thinking - Nobody wanted to help. Nobody wanted to know.”

Hi, I had a mentally ill mother. She passed away last year. I literally grew up hanging around mental hospitals because my Mom's condition was a cycle that always ends in a mental hospital. When I was younger, there was a long period when I cried my eyes out every time I was separated from my mentally ill mother because she had to stay in a mental hospital. After I grew older, my Mom's mental illness became impossible for me to bear.

Literally, my Mom's mental illness ruined my life. I think. I had to struggle extra hard for everything because of my big handicap at home. There was no support at all from anyone other than my father. Nobody else wanted to know about it. My mother's own cousin even said to my father not to bring my Mom to their place. I grew up thinking - Nobody wanted to help. Nobody wanted to know. My mother's own sister has been complaining since 2000 and her last complain was on 5 July 2014. This particular aunt keeps complaining about the same thing. That she had to take my Mom for her weekly injections and complained that my father and I was not around to do it. Then, she goes on to say that she saw my Mom beat me up with a cane. When she said that, I asked my Aunt, you saw my Mom beat me up with a cane? She said yes and than, she walked away.

I feel very sore with this aunt. Number one, the period she was complaining about was when I was still schooling and my father's and my mental health had deteriorated so badly that we had to leave the state for our own sanity. Before joining my father, I had to live alone with my Mom and my baby sister for almost a year. My aunt who lived a few minutes drive away did nothing when my Mom beat me up every day for months until my father managed to cut the red tape to remove me. My body was full of bruises and I was terrified to go home after school. Nobody helped. Not the neighbours who can hear all my mom's shouting at me, nor my aunt, nor my grandparents, nor my school's teachers. Someone should had intervened for a 12+ little girl. No adult helped. My father was trying his best to get me away to stay with him. Nobody helped him.

On XXXXXXXXXXXX, my Mom's sister let slip she saw my Mom beat me with a cane. And yet she did nothing! My aunt even had the cheek to say that my Mom beat me up because I said I wanted to go live with my father. The way my aunt said it was like the beatings were wholly my fault. What is wrong with the picture? You have a 12+ girl being beaten up daily, you are an aunt who knows something is going on and did nothing. Yet for years later you complain about having to take your own blood sister for her injections. And, I do not think she did it for longer than my own experiences. Probably only a few times because my father and I had to travel frequently to see to my mother. Due to the cyclic nature of her illness.

I have been going with my father when he took my mother for her weekly injections as a little girl, knee high, ever since I can remember. My own aunt is so calculative. There was a nurse that visits my Mom to give her her injections. But, the problem is my Mom will not let the nurse into her house that is why the intervention is needed. I have lost count on the number of times I had to go with my Mom for her injections as a little girl.

Her doctors did not bother to enquire about my father and I. They only listened to her stories and full stop. I think my Mom's doctors are the most heartless people I have ever met in my life. Until today, I do not like anyone who officially practices psychology because those doctors etc... contributed to my life being ruined. That is how I feel. I have been scolded by my Mom's medical team and they even dumped my Mom on me after I just turn 18 and there was no other adult around. And, they knew the situation. I was terrified because my Mom was a very violent. My Mom has pitched me, beaten me up, she has biten me with her teeth, she has smashed my head against the table and threatened to beat me with a piece of hard wood. I experienced all these as a little girl at the tender age of 12+ I had to learn karate to protect myself from her violent ways. And, when my Mom was home, I would lock my room's door and place a chair against it. I was that terrified of her.

All our belongings can go missing because my Mom is good at that sort of thing. You never know what is what with my Mom. It is like having a criminal live under the same roof as you.

My aunt kept repeating to me that on my mother's death anniversary I will have go visit her cemetery. I live in a different state from where my mother's cemetery is located. And, my aunt knows that very well. However she repeated her question to me until I said yes. I hate being forced to do something against my will because I have been forced to do things against my will my whole life.

My life is in ruins because of my mother's mental illness and people like my aunt is perpetuating the troubles for me after my mother's death. When I was 12+, my mother's mother said to me that it is my father's job to take care of my mother. In other words, my father's job and mine. And, they never lifted a finger to help. Just helping a little, my aunt has been complaining about the same thing for more than a decade. Unbelievable. Shameful.

Even though my father and I lived in a different state from my mother, we had to travel up and down every weekend because that is demanded of my mother. Sometimes, we had to travel after school and upon our arrival, she won't let us in and we had to travel all the way back. And, my father will not let me sleep at home as it is a school day, I had to go to school. My education was very important to my father. My mother could not be bothered if I succeeded or not.

I have seen more than any of my Mom's relatives have seen with regards her mental illness but people whom I just met behave like I have no idea about my Mom like they are the authority on her behaviour and her illness. Goodness gracious.

Despite this huge handicap in my life I persevered with my studies. My Mom did not give me any moral or emotional support at all. In fact her mental illness cycle will peak just or during my important exams. In other words, I had to deal with my exams and on top of them a mentally ill mother. By my final year in university, I could not take the pressure of exams and a mentally ill mother's break downs anymore.

When I was in my teenage years and early adult years, I was suicidal. I had to call Befrienders a lot. Thank God for Befrienders.

Before XXXXXXXXXXdate, I do not wish my experience to be experienced by anyone else because it is torture. However, after feeling how hard hearted my aunt is. A so called holy person, a church goer, rich person who has successful kids and grand kids. And, she can talk like it is my fault that my Mom beat me up and she (my aunt) had to take her (her own sister) for her injections when I was a kid. I really wish that my aunt must reincarnate as my father (a few lifes) so that she can eat her own words. If my aunt reincarnates and is put in my father's shoes, she would really deserve it. Hope she learns compassion through it all.

Why can't the world give children of the mentally ill a break? I am so fed up with all this troubles that stem from my mother's sister's attitude towards my father and I. After all shel lives a great lives. Rich live. What is wrong with these people? I really cannot stand them. This is my story.

After I wrote the above - I am more myself now, and I totally forgive my aunt and everybody who did nothing to help my father and I. And, everybody else who were heartless towards my father and I. However, I still think that by living a few life times as my father (my aunt) - would do her some good. But, knowing her character, she might become a psychopath and pose a threat to humanity. My father is a very, very kind soul. My aunt is a hard hearted, prejudiced, narrow minded, one tracked mind person.

How I cope? Trying my best to keep out of their way, and hang out with positive people. There are plenty of great people out there. Nnaami is included :)

GerryCan

South East Asia