Home Australia Grandmother fighting to stay in Australia after 40 years Down Under is hit with a stunning blow to the last thing she thought was still truly hers

Grandmother fighting to stay in Australia after 40 years Down Under is hit with a stunning blow to the last thing she thought was still truly hers

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Mary Ellis has now been told by immigration that she has to use a name she last used 45 years ago, which her agent Stan Shneider says is 'absurd' and additional 'torture' for the grandmother.

EXCLUSIVE

An elderly grandmother fighting to stay in Australia after 40 years says she now faces new ‘torture’ at the hands of immigration officials trying to kick her.

Mary Ellis, 75, has made her 35th plea for a bridging visa to avoid being arrested and deported back to the country in handcuffs.

But now he says immigration officials have taken away the last thing he thought was really his.

Instead of running under her name, Mary Philomena Ellis, her department case officer insists she must call herself Mary Mchugo.

That was Mrs. Ellis’s married name in England, which she has not used for almost half a century since she separated from her first husband.

Gold Coast migration agent Stanley Shneider has been helping Ms Ellis obtain Australian citizenship and described the latest development as ‘absurd’.

“She for about 45 years has used the surname Ellis, quite legally and appropriately,” he said.

‘And everything she has done in Australia has been as Mary Philomena Ellis and not Mary Philomena Mchugo. It’s absurd.

Mary Ellis has now been told by immigration that she has to use a name she last used 45 years ago, which her agent Stan Shneider says is ‘absurd’ and additional ‘torture’ for the grandmother.

Immigration agent Stan Shneider has strongly supported Ms Ellis, saying the Migration Act only allows limited opportunities for the minister to intervene, but he is trying

Immigration agent Stan Shneider has strongly supported Ms Ellis, saying the Migration Act only allows limited opportunities for the minister to intervene, but he is trying

Almost half a century ago, Mary became Mrs McHugo when she married soldier Sean McHugo (above, Mchugo with his second wife) and they had two children, but the relationship broke down

Almost half a century ago, Mary became Mrs McHugo when she married soldier Sean McHugo (above, Mchugo with his second wife) and they had two children, but the relationship broke down

Ms Ellis first went on television last year to plead with the Department of Home Affairs to let her stay in Australia after she was threatened with deportation.

She claimed she “doesn’t know a soul” in her native United Kingdom and insisted she had never left Australia since her arrival in 1981.

Ms Ellis said Home Affairs claims that she left Australia three times under an alias between 1983 and 1986 were false, as were allegations that her late second husband Martin Ellis was really a man called Trevor Warren.

A Daily Mail investigation revealed that, according to her daughter in England, Ellis had returned to the UK in the early 1980s, disqualifying her from “absorbed” citizenship under Australia’s immigration rules.

Shneider had previously urged former immigration, citizenship and multicultural affairs minister Andrew Giles, who has been succeeded in the portfolio by Tony Burke, to use his power to recognize his client as an “absorbed person”.

But now Ms Ellis’ social worker insists on every bridging visa, which she has to apply for every three months, like Mary Mchugo.

Mrs Ellis was just 19 when she married soldier Sean Mchugo in Lambeth, south London in 1968, and the following year their daughter Angela was born in the same area.

Angela’s brother David Mchugo is believed to have been born in 1971, although no record of his birth could be found in England and Wales.

Mary was 19 when she married soldier Sean Mchugo, and the marriage failed. Now she has been told she must call herself Mary Mchugo, a name she has not used in almost half a century

Mary was 19 when she married soldier Sean Mchugo, and the marriage failed. Now she has been told she must call herself Mary Mchugo, a name she has not used in almost half a century

The marriage broke down and Ms Ellis began a relationship with Martin Ellis, a name the Australian government now says was actually an alias for Trevor Warren.

Recalling how her mother left the UK with her two children, her daughter Angela said: ‘She and Trevor, her partner at the time, had always wanted to go to Australia.

‘Trevor had at least one sister living there, maybe two. Mum and Trevor went to Australia first as a trial run. So we all went out as a family.

But my brother and I hate it out there. I absolutely hated it. I was only there for about eight months.

‘I was about 15 at the time and I came home to the UK and lived with an aunt. My brother returned and joined the British Army. I haven’t seen my mother since I was 17 years old.

Meanwhile, his brother David married in Canterbury, Kent, in July 1995. He spent the early part of his career in the UK and only emigrated to Australia in later years.

David, 53, is now a company director, providing project management to the rail sector around Sydney. Ellis’s ex-husband, Sean Mchugo, remarried in 1988, but died 20 years later in Medway, Kent.

Ms Ellis told Daily Mail Australia that upon arriving in Australia in 1981, her partner told her he had acquired permanent residence visas for both of them, which she discovered to be untrue decades later.

In an interview with Australia’s Network Nine, he said: ‘I have a driving licence, ID card, Medicare card, pension card. Everything Australians have.

‘I thought well, I’m a permanent resident. You know, I still do what I do every day. Nobody said anything.

The discovery came when the pensioner was asked to visit the Department of Home Affairs’ Brisbane office, where he was told he had been living illegally in Australia.

Grandma worked in hospitality and then for the New South Wales Government for 30 years.

Shneider, who initially described the affairs of the home, “claims that he had left the country under an alias three times since his arrival in 1981 as “meaningless.”

Mary Ellis whose feelings of anxiety intensify each time her last visa runs out and threats from immigration officials hit her home for 35 visas and now she has been told her name is not 'Ellis'

Mary Ellis whose feelings of anxiety intensify each time her last visa runs out and threats from immigration officials hit her home for 35 visas and now she has been told her name is not ‘Ellis’

Mary Ellis (above) loves Australia and wants to stay and with the support online, it seems many Australians believe she deserves it after decades of working and paying taxes here

Mary Ellis (above) loves Australia and wants to stay and with the support online, it seems many Australians believe she deserves it after decades of working and paying taxes here

Shneider dodged questions about Angela’s claims that her mother had returned to the UK in 1986.

“I have accepted Mary’s instructions in good faith and until it is established otherwise, I will stand by those instructions,” he said.

A popular figure in her community due to her time spent volunteering and raising money for the Salvation Army, Ms Ellis also worked in home care.

But threats to deport her have scared Ms Ellis, who has widespread support on social media for her to stay.

Home Affairs told Daily Mail Australia that the Minister’s personal intervention powers were only encouraged under certain sections of the Migration Act, which is when a person is refused a visa, or a review court refuses to intervene in the case.

However, Mr Shneider insisted that Ms Ellis had not applied for an absorbed person visa, because under the Migration Act no one can, it is only an acquired status if they qualify, and therefore had not been refused. a visa.

Shneider said the part of the Migration Act that gives the Minister the power to intervene was at best narrow, or at worst a kind of catch-22.

The tide of opinion in Facebook discussions about Ellis’ case is directly behind her and firmly against the government’s immigration laws.

One woman wrote online: ‘For God’s sake this is outrage, he so deserves to stay.

‘The immigration minister must fix this! Surely common decency in the name of the Minister should be granted automatically!

“What the hell is the immigration department doing when we don’t deport people who should be imprisoned and deport a good scout who hasn’t done anything wrong in the 40 years he’s lived here!”

A popular figure in her community due to her time spent volunteering and raising money for the Salvation Army, Ms Ellis also worked in home care and has won awards for volunteering.

A popular figure in her community due to her time spent volunteering and raising money for the Salvation Army, Ms Ellis also worked in home care and has won awards for volunteering.

(Tagstotranslate) DailyMail (T) News (T) Australia (T) England

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