Australian advocacy groups say the federal government regards migrants with disability as a financial burden instead of giving them credit for the positive contributions they make to society.
They say current immigration policies make it impossible for many migrants with disability, particularly those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds (CALD), to attain visas, proper funding or employment.
Aileen Ng, a 30-year-old migrant who has an intellectual disability, was originally denied a visa because of her disability when moving to Australia from Malaysia.
She spent her time at home, unable to find work, until her family found a local disability employment training program at Onemda.
Onemda is a Victorian disability support organisation that advocated for Aileen to obtain a working visa and assisted her family in taking her case to court.
She is now happily employed at Indulgence Cafe in Doncaster East, Victoria.
"I'm working at the Indulgence Cafe at The Pines Shopping Centre. I do waitressing and serve customers. I feel better with a job. It keeps me busy," Aileen said.
But not everyone in Aileen's circumstances have the help of support organisations and they find themselves in a battle for their rights against the government.
Simon Lewis, CEO of Onemda, says the Australian government overlooks the ability of people with disability to contribute to society, too often denying citizenship or granting visas.
“People with disabilities have the ability to make enormous contributions to Australia, economically, socially and personally,” Mr Lewis said.
He said migrants with disability are treated as “second class citizens” by the Australian government and that they should have an equal right to education and “the right to actively participate in every aspect of day-to-day society".
He says while migrants with disability do need additional support, they also bring “fantastic” value to society.
“Their attendance rates are, for example, are through the roof. If you employ someone with a disability, statistics show they're going to turn up each day, willing and able to do the job," he said.
The National Ethnic Disability Alliance (NEDA) advocates the federal government for the human rights of people with disability from CALD and non-English speaking backgrounds.
One of their major policy objections is the so-called health requirement the Australian government subjects migrants to.
The migration health requirement specifies that a visa applicant must be free of a "disease or condition", which would cost the Australian community a "significant amount", or prevent access to health and community care and or scarce resources for Australian citizens.
NEDA CEO Dwayne Cranfield said the way the health requirement test is applied is “absurd” and added even a young British woman with Down syndrome had her tourist visa rejected because she failed the test.
“We need to get rid of it. We need to remove the whole process. We need to stop looking at people with a disability as a burden,” Mr Cranfield said.
He said the Australian government has to start looking at what people add to the community, and “the fact that we're a nation built on migration”.
Mr Cranfield said an end to legal discrimination against migrants with disability is especially pressing due to the effects of climate change.
"You've got Island nations now, which are inundated with water. If these people have nowhere to live, or no access, or no equity, or no support, where do they go?” Mr Cranfield said.
“You know they're okay to come and pick fruit. We bring people from other nations to do our dirty work for us. But what do we do with these people who have a disability?" he added.
Maureen Fordyce from Amparo, a disability advocacy organisation based in Brisbane, says when migrants have children with disability in Australia, it's "impossible" for many of them to pass the health requirement tests.
“For example, we welcome New Zealanders to come and live in Australia — to work, to pay taxes, to pay Medicare. They may live here for 15 years, then they might have a child with disability and be forced to leave the country,” Ms Fordyce said.
She says it's often impossible for people in these cases to receive permanent residency, as their child won’t be able to pass the Australian government’s health assessment.
Ms Fordyce said the government should grant access to the National Disability Insurance Scheme to migrants with disability.
“We're working with a young man who came to Australia as an asylum seeker and had a stroke. The federal government supports him to live in a nursing home, but they won’t allow him access to the National Disability Insurance Scheme to receive the support he needs to live a good life in the community.”
Christian Astourian from North West Disability Services said the government is able to discriminate against migrants with disability because the Disability Discrimination Act from 1992 doesn’t apply to the Migration Act.
“Families have been broken and separated because of this situation where families can bring only members without disability to Australia,” Mr Astourian said.
Organisations working with migrants with disability, particularly those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, are calling out the Australian government for change.
They want people with disability to be recognised as humans with equal rights, who provide positive contributions to society, rather than just a financial burden.
