Key Points
- A Perth-based family faces deportation because their son has Down syndrome.
- The Indian couple work in highly-skilled sectors, and have lived here for seven years.
- Immigration Minister Andrew Giles is being urged to intervene.
A Perth family facing deportation because their child has Down syndrome is pleading with Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to intervene in the case.
Aneesh Kollikkara and Krishna Aneesh have been told they have less than two weeks to leave Australia, after their application for permanent residency was rejected because their 10-year-old son Aaryan is deemed a burden on the taxpayer.
The couple has been in Australia for seven years, having moved from India, meaning their two children — Aaryan and 8-year-old daughter Aaryasree — have spent the vast majority of their lives here.
"We haven't mentioned anything to [our children]. If our daughter hears we have to depart from the country because of her brother, I don't know how it will be," Ms Aneesh told SBS News.
The couple applied for permanent residency in February 2020, and received a rejection in mid-2021. Their final avenue for appeal was rejected last month, with the pair told they had 35 days to leave the country with their children.
Immigration Miniser Andrew Giles is being urged to intervene in the case. Source: AAP
Both of Aaryan's parents work in critical industries - Ms Aneesh is a cyber security expert and his father, Mr Kollikkara, is in telecommunications.
Ms O'Neil attacked the Coalition's "negligence" on immigration, warning it was "difficult, slow and not particularly attractive for a high-skill, permanent migrant to come here".
The couple has been living in Australia for seven years, and work in highly skilled industries. Source: Supplied
"People having a kid with Down syndrome, or any kind of disability, people have a different attitude towards them," she said.
"We kindly request the minister to intervene [in] our case and grant us permanent residency. We are contributing positively to the economy and society.
"Please consider our contribution, while considering the disability of our kid. Even he has just a mild disability. He won't be a significant cost to the Australian community or taxpayers."
Ms Aneesh arrived in Australia on a student visa in 2016, and said she enjoyed living in the country so much she got a job in 2018, while still studying.
"I felt like I'm really lucky. I was really happy, that it will be a good thing, staying here in Australia," she said.
A spokesperson for the Home Affairs Department said Mr Giles did not comment on individual cases, but was aware of the matter.
'Where's the burden to the taxpayer?'
People With Disability Australia treasurer Suresh Rajan, who is representing the family, lodged the letter on their behalf.
"You cannot think in terms of human beings in monetary terms, saying: this child is a burden to the taxpayer. Where is the humanity?" he told SBS News.
Mr Rajan said Mr Giles could grant a stay "overnight", but feared the family will be given a separate bridging visa, stripping the couple of their right to work and Aaryan's ability to go to school, even if they are allowed to stay beyond the end of their current visa.
He said the Department of Home Affairs had calculated the cost of permanent residency at more than $600,000 over ten years, including medical expenses and the cost of Aaryan's schooling.
"My assessment of these two people, Krishna and Aneesh, [is that] the tax they will pay in that period will exceed $664,000. So where's the burden to the taxpayer?" he asked.
And with the "significant cost" threshold for medical bills set at $49,500 over a decade, Mr Rajan said that would be recouped "in a flash" via taxation once Aaryan enters the workforce.
Labor has recently engaged an expert to undertake a review of the significant cost threshold.
Priya and Nades Murugappan and their two Australian-born children Kopika and Tharnicaa - dubbed the Biloela family - were granted a stay after a similar intervention. Image: Supplied Source: AAP / Supplied
'Where was the cost?'
Mr Rajan said he had been involved in 28 similar cases over the past ten years.
In one, he said a doctor working in Australia's health system and earning a large wage had a child with cancer, who was being treated in Sweden.
Mr Rajan said the doctor had a guarantee that the Swedish government would fly the child over for any further treatment, "completely free of charge" to her.
But Mr Rajan said the doctor's application for permanent residency in Australia was rejected on the basis that her child had cancer, and would cost the taxpayer too much.
"Where was the cost [in that case]?" he asked.
SBS News has contacted Mr Giles' office for comment.
Mr Giles has previously used changes to ministerial directives to soften some elements of Australia's immigration policy, in February ensuring that .
That change, which did not need to be legislated, came in response to the New Zealand government criticising the former Coalition government for deporting New Zealand-born residents who had spent the vast majority of their life in Australia.
