SOURCE: Geelong Advertiser (Australia) 24 08
2011
IT COULD be two years before a Torquay couple get to watch their adopted Cambodian daughter blow out her birthday candles in their own home.
Five-year-old Pisey Paterson has been living in a rape crisis centre in Cambodia while her parents Michael and Meagan Paterson have been trying desperately to secure a visa for her to come to Australia.
The family is now facing an agonising 18-month wait to have Pisey's case heard by members of a Migration Review Tribunal (MRT) who will decide her fate.
If the MRT knocks back the family's case, they can appeal directly to the Minister for Immigration for the visa.
In a heartbreaking twist, Pisey is about to become homeless as the shelter where she lives will close within weeks.
Pisey's adopted grandpa Bill Welsh, who has cancer, last week flew to Cambodia in a desperate race against time to secure accommodation for the little girl.
2011
IT COULD be two years before a Torquay couple get to watch their adopted Cambodian daughter blow out her birthday candles in their own home.
Five-year-old Pisey Paterson has been living in a rape crisis centre in Cambodia while her parents Michael and Meagan Paterson have been trying desperately to secure a visa for her to come to Australia.
The family is now facing an agonising 18-month wait to have Pisey's case heard by members of a Migration Review Tribunal (MRT) who will decide her fate.
If the MRT knocks back the family's case, they can appeal directly to the Minister for Immigration for the visa.
In a heartbreaking twist, Pisey is about to become homeless as the shelter where she lives will close within weeks.
Pisey's adopted grandpa Bill Welsh, who has cancer, last week flew to Cambodia in a desperate race against time to secure accommodation for the little girl.
Speaking to the Geelong Advertiser from Cambodia, Mr Paterson said the trip was heartbreaking.
"I have to leave at the end of August to come home for tests related to my illness so I am desperately trying to make sure I have things in place for my granddaughter," Mr Welsh said.
In another setback for the family, the Australian Government is now questioning the legality of the adoption, even though it was verified and approved by the highest level of Cambodian Government the Council of Ministers.
Adoption advocate Janine Weir, who co-founded National Adoption Awareness Week with celebrity adoption advocate Deborra-Lee Furness, said Australia's inter-country adoption laws were "shameful".
"There is fear surrounding the process of inter-country adoption for the Australian Government and ultimately that is not in the best interests of any child," Ms Weir said.
Mr Paterson, who has devoted 35 years of his life to helping the people of Cambodia, said a social worker at the rape crisis centre where Pisey was living said the separation from her family was causing the little girl to deteriorate.
Member of the Cambodian Parliament Her Excellence Sochhy, who oversees the women's affairs and social justice portfolios, has taken an interest in Pisey's plight, saying the little girl should be urgently reunited with her family.
Mr and Mrs Paterson adopted Pisey while the couple were living and working as expatriates in Cambodia.
The couple ran a shelter for women who had been raped and sexually abused, and began the adoption process when Pisey was 18 months old.
But when Mrs Paterson's dad was diagnosed with cancer, the couple returned home, with the Australian Embassy in Cambodia assuring them that Pisey would be able to obtain a visa to join her family.
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