| Submit your comments on this article |
| Down Under |
| Vietnam Veteran told to leave Australia |
| 2005-06-23 |
| A VIETNAM veteran who has lived in Australia for more than 30 years is facing deportation after he was bluntly told by a junior immigration official he had no reason to stay. Roger Harris, 60, was one of Australia's original tunnel rats and volunteered for two tours of duty with the Australian Army in Vietnam between 1965 and 1968, and attained the rank of sergeant. He said yesterday the Department of Immigration had made him jump through hoops and then told him his application for the renewal of his residency had been cancelled because he no longer had a compelling reason to stay. Raised in a British orphanage after World War II, and sent to Australia at the age of 16 in 1961, Mr Harris said he did not realise he wasn't an Australian citizen until 1981 when he went to apply for a passport to go to Britain. Since then he had lived in Australia for 12 years, and then in the US where he kept, and regularly renewed, his resident return visa because he intended to settle back in Australia. However, after he came back to Australia in April to live with his son's family and watch his grandchildren grow up, he faced a wall of resistance from an officer at the Department of Immigration. "She said I don't see that you've got a compelling reason to be here. She said you've got no compelling reason because you've been away so long," Mr Harris said. "A week later she rang to say she was going to cancel the application. She said military service in the 60s doesn't count, it's too long ago. I just boiled." |
| Posted by:Spavirt Pheng6042 |
| #11 Tree. Immigration Puke. Rope. Some assembly required. |
| Posted by: mmurray821 2005-06-23 09:36 |
| #10 Touche', 2b! So true...I guess we all have to put up with our leftie fascists crackpots. It's just that it's getting worse, and I was born in the early 70's! I'm sick and tired of everyone picking on vets...they deserve our complete respect/support! |
| Posted by: BA 2005-06-23 08:39 |
| #9 It's no worse than anything that happens here in the US, BA. |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-06-23 08:35 |
| #8 I still love the Aussies, but just when I had high hopes for them, some P.C. cr@p sneaks in like this. Beer_me's right...just "convert" to Islam and it'll all be o.k. |
| Posted by: BA 2005-06-23 08:33 |
| #7 Fire this bitch.My Father-in law(deceased)was a Tunnel rat(danmned fine man,I miss him),you had to be an exceedinglly brave person to crawl done one of those dank,dangerous hole. |
| Posted by: raptor 2005-06-23 08:11 |
| #6 Don't they have an appeal process? Still this is crap. The fact that his family lives in Australia is a 'compelling' reason in my book. Sounds like someone just wants to show their 'power'. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2005-06-23 08:08 |
| #5 heh, heh, another little bureauc-rat about to see his little empire come crashing down around him. |
| Posted by: 2b 2005-06-23 08:06 |
| #4 Maybe the immigration official should be made to show why she has a "compelling reason" to stay. |
| Posted by: Darth VAda 2005-06-23 06:54 |
| #3 If he converts to Islam, he'd get in quick. But nothing is worth that. |
| Posted by: beer_me 2005-06-23 02:45 |
| #2 If a government treats it's vetrans like this why the hell would you want to stay? |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet 0’ Doom 2005-06-23 01:34 |
| #1 Between the Chen asylum story and this one, I'm thinking that Howard needs to take a hard look and have a very short talk with whatever dingdongs are running Ozzie Immigration. Something is definitely wrong with both situations. |
| Posted by: .com 2005-06-23 01:29 |