Aussie Immigration Minister to Review SA Grandmother’s “Death Sentence” Deportation

The Australian Minister of Immigration, Peter Dutton, has told a local radio station that he will review a South African grandmother’s deportation, after he read about her plight in ‘The Australian’ newspaper… in which she described her deportation, scheduled for 23 June, as a “death sentence”.

Linda Oppel (58), who sold all her belongings when she left South Africa in 2012, following the death of her husband of 30 years, says the order for her to return to SA when her bridging visa expires is “like a death sentence for me to leave my family behind, I won’t be able to survive that…”

She told The Australian she has no relatives left in South Africa and said: “It’s also very unsafe for women in South Africa – I’m really scared to go back.”

Her story has made headlines in Australia and the UK today.

Linda recently set up a petition on Change.org to ask Dutton to personally review her application.

In the petition she says she’s desperate for help and explains she moved to Perth with her two children, to be with her sister, after losing her husband to cancer.

“My only family is my sister Monica.  She moved to Perth over a decade ago and became an Australian citizen. Monica tried to sponsor me for a Remaining Relative Visa. We lost both of our parents in a car accident when we were young children.  We have no one else, except each other and children of our own.

“But the immigration department refused my visa application.  The reason why?  Because the migration law says that Monica and I aren’t related to each other!!  We were told that the problem is that when we were placed in foster care in the 1970s after our parents died, I was “adopted” out at the age of 12 years old.  Because of that adoption,which only lasted 5 years, the migration law says that Monica isn’t my sister anymore.  We just couldn’t believe it.  It is so absurd!”

She wrote to the Immigration Minister back in 2014 asking him to intervene, and proving with DNA results that Monica is her sister. The Minister is able to intervene when the law has “unfair or unintended consequences”, she says.

Last week, two and a half years after her submission, she received a one-line response from the the Assistant Minister which said that her case was “not in the public interest” and she would need to leave Australia at the end of her bridging visa (23 June 2017).

Linda was heartbroken. “I am devastated.  Not only is it heartless, it doesn’t even make any sense,” she said.

She then pleaded with supporters to please ask Dutton to consider her case, as it was only the Assistant Manager, the Hon Alex Hawke, who had made the decision and Dutton has not yet looked at it.

Linda says she has spent the last five years building her future in Australia, where she has made many friends, and lives in a small unit with her son, his partner and her grandson, named after her husband Leon.

“He fills my heart with joy every day.  I can’t fathom the thought of leaving him, and my family, behind…

“My sister and I suffered the tragedy of losing both of our parents when we were just kids.  The Australian government is now relying on that tragedy to refuse me a visa that I would have otherwise been entitled to… I have lived here long enough to know that this outcome goes against the values held by every decent Australian.”

After Linda’s story appeared in The Australian on Monday morning, Dutton has said he will review the matter.

He said: “I’ll have a read through all of the detail, if there’s action that I can take, or  I deem necessary to take, then I can take that action, so I need just to have a look at the file, obviously it’s an involved circumstance.”

He said in the meantime, Linda and her daughter Venessa (29) will not be deported.

“We are a compassionate country. We provide support to a lot of people and allow people to become Australian citizens or settle here permanently.”