NZ to kick out 101-year-old

2008-02-12 12:03

Wellington - As a 102-year-old Englishman sails to a new life in New Zealand, the country is poised to kick out a second British centenarian who wants to spend his dying days there with his only living relative, news reports said on Tuesday.

The 101-year-old widower who has been living in New Zealand with his adopted son since 2006 has been told to leave by the Residence Review Board, which said his "age, his financial resources, the fact that his son lives in New Zealand and the fact the appellant has no family in Great Britain do not make him special".

The man's name was not revealed in a board report that identified him only as a retired research chemist who said he had adequate financial resources to support himself and met New Zealand immigration health requirements.

The board's decision was published as Britain's oldest immigrant, Eric King-Turner, a retired dentist, was sailing to New Zealand with his New Zealand-born wife Doris, 87, who sponsored his immigration application. They were due to arrive on Saturday.

The widower being told to go has been living with his adopted son, 63, who was born in England but was granted New Zealand residency in 1994 and holds a New Zealand passport.

The review board upheld an Immigration Service decision refusing the 101-year-old permission to stay because his son had not lived in New Zealand for the required minimum 184 days in each of the three years before his father's application was made. - Sapa-dpa

- SAPA