THE Passeggi family, haunted by the threat of deportation, has won its battle in time to celebrate Christmas with the Caloundra Catholic community on the Sunshine Coast.
And Catholics in Hobart are celebrating a bittersweet immigration result for teenage student Ruth Cruz.
Horacio and Stella Passeggi and their three youngest children, Tomas, 24, Rosina, 18, and Mariana, 16, have lived in Caloundra for about seven years, but since mid-June were on the brink of deportation back to Uruguay.
They struck problems through a misunderstanding with the Immigration Department and were placed on a Bridging ‘E’ visa, the last step before deportation.
After much heartache for the family and lobbying by the Sunshine Coast Catholic community and politicians in the area, a resolution was eventually found.
The Passegis had to go to New Zealand to fulfil a requirement that they lodge their application for permanent residency offshore.
In Hobart, the Immigration Department decision to grant Ruth Cruz a student visa to remain in Australia until March 2005 was considered a bittersweet result because she and her supporters were hoping for permanent residency on humanitarian grounds.
Seventeen year-old Ruth, a Year 11 student at St Mary’s College, Hobart, has been living with her older sister in Tasmania after fleeing El Salvador.
Immigration Minister, Senator Amanda Vanstone’s decision on the student visa was announced on December 5.
Archbishop Adrian Doyle of Hobart said he was disappointed Ruth had not been granted permanent residency.
Friends of Ruth spokeswoman Jo Flanagan said Ruth had lived from short-term visa to short-term visa since she arrived in
this country malnourished, battered and bruised as a 13 year-old.
Meanwhile, in Adelaide, two 18 year-old male Afghan asylum seekers have been granted student visas to attend St Ignatius College in the city.
