There has been much on the news regarding Australia’s treatment of Asylum Seekers in off shore detention; protests about freedom for those on the mainland; and some recent wins in that regard. But the story I read in ‘The New Daily,” an online news service of the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation), on the 22nd of March this year, had me flabbergasted. It seems that ‘The Migration Act,’ is one of the few pieces of legislation in Australia where it’s OK to discriminate against people based on their disability.
The story reported on the case of Kayaan Katyal, a 6-year-old boy who was born in Australia with cerebral palsy, and for that reason alone, Australia wants to deport him. If he didn’t have a disability, he’d likely by now be an Australian permanent resident.
Kayaan’s father, Varun, came to Australia from India 12 years ago to study European cookery and has been a chef in a restaurant for much of the time since. His wife Priyanka moved here 8 years ago, after they married. They have paid taxes, passed criminal checks and complied with everything asked of them by the Department of Home Affairs. They were on track to receive permanent residency, and had dreams of opening a restaurant, when Kayaan was born premature at 32 weeks with cerebral palsey.
Under Australia’s Migration Act, that can be an automatic fail. The Department of Home affairs makes it clear Kayaan’s disability is the only reason the family cannot stay. They received a rejection letter this February, explaining that it estimated that Kayaan would cost Australian taxpayers $1.23 million over 10 years, which “would be likely to result in a significant, undue cost to the Australian community in the areas of health care and/or community services.”
Kayaan’s parents are terrified about what going back to India would mean for them and for their disabled son. He has just started prep at a local special school in Melbourne’s west, and is making progress with his speech and mobility, and his parents fear that going back to India will mean that Kayaan will go backwards.
Varun, who left India when he was 19, does not know if he’d be bale to get work there. “The only thing that was wrong with our visa application, was not in our hands. The things that were in our hands, we did right,” he said.
Exact data on how many children are ordered to leave because of their condition is not available, but The New Daily reported that advocacy groups say they come across about a dozen such cases each year. Sometimes, those who bring attention to their situation are able to stay, but mostly the struggles of these families are unbeknownst to everyday Australians.
Jan Gothard, the co-founder of the advocacy group, ‘Welcoming Disability,’ has campaigned for changes to these laws for more than 20 years. But despite a federal parliamentary Joint Standing Committee report in 2010 recommending the government make it easier for people with disabilities to be granted visas, she said little has changed.
In 2019, the United Nations called on Australia to make its immigration rules more equitable. Note that after Canada faced similar criticism, it overhauled its Migration Act in 2018. A spokes person from the Department of Home Affairs said, in a statement, that not all people with disabilities were rejected for permanent residency, and individuals were assessed based on the cost to the community and whether it would prejudice the access of Australian citizens and permanent residents to services in short supply.
The New Daily reported that Kayaan’s doctor, Barry Rawicki (head of the Victorian Paediatric Rehabilitation Services) from the Monash Children’s Hospital, knows firsthand the medical system that awaits his patient in India. Having worked there multiple times in his career, he said that if the Katyals could pay top dollar, they would be served well. But the Katyals say they don’t have that kind of money.
In Western Australia, the Jamshaad family have been fighting to stay in Australia after their son, 4-year-old Kayban, received a brain injury during birth. They’ve been here for 9 years, but their request for permanent residency was rejected because of Kayban’s condition, which requires a range of complex care. Because of this, going back to their country of origin would mean a death sentence for their Kayban.
As Catholic Social teaching puts it, a basic test of a society is how its most vulnerable members are faring. On so many levels, for all the good social conditions that there are in this country, Australia again has failed this test.