“There’s so much in your life going on when a child is sick, so much struggle and you’re struggling and begging and asking for petitions, asking people to help you,\u201d says Mehwish Qasim, who knows the challenge first-hand. She and her husband Qasim fought to stay in Australia in a case that drew global attention.<\/p>\n
Their son Shaffan was born in 2014 with a rare genetic condition and a damaged spinal cord. He needs around-the-clock care. The couple, originally from Pakistan, intended to return eventually, but Shaffan’s birth changed everything. Now, getting on a plane would risk his life.<\/p>\n
Finally, in 2022 they were told they could stay. For those eight years, Qasim, a trained accountant, was unable to work in his chosen profession. Instead, he found jobs in cafes, in supermarkets and taxi apps to make ends meet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey should realise that’s a very difficult situation – you shouldn’t put people in the limelight,\u201d Ms Qasim says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Ms Currie and her husband aren\u2019t giving up either – Australia is home now for Luca and they are filling jobs that the country needs. They\u2019re hoping that is enough to win them their appeal. If they lose, they will have 28 days to leave the country.<\/p>\n
For Luca, the sticking point is a pricey drug, Trikafta. He is not on it and may not even be compatible with it. But it\u2019s the basis of Australian estimates of his treatment – around A$1.8m That puts his medical costs over the permissible limit – A$86,000 over 10 years, also known as the Significant Cost Threshold.<\/p>\n
While campaigners have welcomed the recent rise of the threshold – from A$51,000 to A$86,000 – they still don\u2019t think it reflects average costs.<\/p>\n
The government\u2019s own data shows it spends at least $17,610 per year on the average citizen – the most recent figures from 2021-2022 showing $9,365 per head on health goods and services and a further A$8,245 per person on welfare costs. Over a 10-year period – the maximum period assessed for a visa – that would amount to more than A$170,000. So campaigners have questioned how the government comes up with the threshold, which is half of that amount.<\/p>\n
They also want the cost of educational support to be removed from the calculations. This impacts families whose children have been diagnosed with conditions such as Down Syndrome, ADHD and autism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Claire has two job offers for police positions in Australia – but fears she won’t get a visa for her daughter, Darcy, who has Down Syndrome<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n\n
It\u2019s a snag that has hit Claire Day\u2019s plans for her and her family to follow her brother, who moved to Australia a few years ago.<\/p>\n
Her younger daughter Darcy, who is nearly 10, has Down Syndrome. She’s been told by migration experts that because of that, she has little chance of being granted a visa.<\/p>\n
On an overcast afternoon in Kent, she talks wistfully of the life she is looking forward to Down Under. Sunshine is no small attraction, but also \u201cthe lifestyle – [I want] a better environment for the children to grow up in,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
An officer with London\u2019s Metropolitan Police force for 21 years, she wants to take advantage of a major recruitment drive by Australian police forces. Their social media feeds are full of promotional videos fronted by former British police officers, showing them living the Australian dream, patrolling the beach in sand buggies and relaxing in the surf. They make up just some of the 30,000 British people who moved to Australia last year, according to government statistics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
Queensland Police Service<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nAustralian police forces are trying to entice British officers with promotional videos like these<\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n\n
Ms Day has not one, but two job offers – from Queensland\u2019s police force and from South Australia. As part of the job, she\u2019s also entitled to a permanent visa. Now, she is not so sure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had hoped that it wouldn’t be an issue because Darcy doesn’t have any medical problems. She’s fit and she’s healthy, she goes to school and she participates in clubs and all of that sort of stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stories like this have convinced campaigners that, at its heart, the policy is ableist.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we say to people with disability, \u2018you\u2019re not welcome here, we’re saying directly to people living with disability in this country, \u2018you\u2019re not welcome here either,\u201d Dr Gothard says. <\/p>\n
“[We’re saying] you know, given the opportunity, we would rather not have you.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
Social worker Shizleen Aishath says she was \u201cgobsmacked\u201d to find out about the health requirement – and she discovered it the hard way.<\/p>\n
A former UN employee, she came to Australia for a further degree with every intention of returning to the Maldives. But she had an emergency C-section when her son Kayban was born in 2016. Forceps were used during the delivery. Kayban had undiagnosed haemophilia and suffered a serious brain bleed. He now needs round-the-clock care and the family chose to stay in Australia.<\/p>\n
But Kayban was refused a temporary visa because he was deemed too much of a burden – although the family have private health insurance and don\u2019t use state resources. The rest of the family were granted their visas.<\/p>\n
\u201cDisability is the only thing that stops you from migrating, there is nothing else,\u201d Ms Aishath says.<\/p>\n
After a lengthy appeal, Kayban was allowed to remain. His family is now preparing for their next fight – to stay in Australia indefinitely.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"17 hours ago By\u00a0Katy Watson,\u00a0Australia correspondent BBC Australia has become home for two-year-old Luca, and his parents Dante and Laura When Luca was born in a Perth hospital two years ago, it flipped his parents\u2019 world in ways they never expected. With the joy came a shocking diagnosis: Luca had cystic fibrosis. Then Australia – […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[41],"tags":[357,409,2797,14234,990],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38168"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38170,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38168\/revisions\/38170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kede.com.br\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}