/ 15 July 1998

White SA ‘refugees’ rejected by Oz

WEDNEDAY, 12.00NOON:

CHERRYL KENNEDY, the white South African woman who has applied for political asylum in Australia on the grounds that she has been persecuted by affirmative action in South Africa, has lost her case.

The Australian Refugee Review Tribunal on Wednesday upheld an Immigration Department ruling that she had no grounds for her claims of intolerable crime and anti-white racism.

Kennedy, and daughters Camilee and Giselle, 10 and eight years old respectively, have until the end of July to leave Australia, or face deportation.

Kennedy, who did not meet normal requirements for emigration to Australia, is said to have accepted the ruling, but remains determined not to return to South Africa. Her case, if successful, might have inspired other similar applications from white South Africans who do not qualify for emigration to Australia.

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