A single mother will be torn apart from her eight-year-old Australian-born son after she was given final deportation orders to leave the country in three weeks’ time. Brisbane aged care worker Bernadette Romulo has also been banned from re-entering the country for three years, meaning she will not see her son Giro again until he is 11 years old. Ms Romulo and her two daughters from a previous relationship, aged 12 and 13, have lived in Australia for the past 11 years but are being deported to the Philippines after their application for permanent residency was rejected. The distraught mother’s appeal for a ministerial intervention into her visa case was dismissed by Assistant Minister for Home Affairs Alex Hawke last December but she has been given several extensions on her departure date over the past few months amid national media coverage of her plight. However, Ms Romulo was last week told that she must leave the country by July 11 and show proof she has bought plane tickets by July 5.
