S. African Couple Gets Deportation Notice

A couple on Bainbridge Island facing deportation to South Africa received official notification Thursday that they will be sent away in three weeks.

Michael and Carol Gormley, both 56, were ordered to report March 11 to a U.S. Immigration officer in Seattle. They were told that arrangements had been made for their departure “via commercial transportation.”

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Michael Gormley worked 27 years in Durban, South Africa, for a scaffolding company, but was laid off after the country passed a post-apartheid law mandating employers have a work force reflecting the country’s racial makeup.

Without a job he also was unable to afford the multitude of prescriptions he needed for a congenital heart condition.

The Gormleys moved to Bainbridge from Durban in 1999 and immediately applied for asylum, citing anti-white discrimination in South African employment opportunities and crime.

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