 |
A
10-year-old autistic Filipino boy makes an emotional plea for permission to stay
in Australia, as tens of thousands called for him not to be deported (AFP
Photo/
Greg Wood) |
A
10-year-old autistic Filipino boy made an emotional plea Monday for permission
to stay in Australia, as tens of thousands called for him not to be deported
despite the potential cost of his condition.
Tyrone
Sevilla, who arrived in Australia from the Philippines legally as a
two-year-old with his mother Maria Sevilla, has written to Immigration Minister
Peter Dutton asking to stay.
The letter,
which reads: "Dear Mr Dutton, can I stay in Australia please...
Tyrone," was the first one her son had written and probably the most
important he would ever write, Maria said.
 |
Tyrone
Sevilla holds a sign he wrote with a
message for Australia's Immigration
Minister
Peter Dutton asking to stay in the country (AFP
Photo/Maria Sevilla)
|
"With
our help, he managed to sit down and write all those letters on the page. For
him to sit down and do that, it's a different Tyrone," she told AFP.
Maria
Sevilla said the letter showed her son, who does not normally communicate by
speaking, understood the family's situation after they were denied visas due to
the probable cost of providing for Tyrone's care.
"I
think he knows what's going on," she said.
Maria, who
has been in Australia since 2007 on a variety of visas, said she and her son
had been denied permission to stay longer because they were labelled a
"burden" to Australian taxpayers.
The
Sevillas presented a petition, signed by more than 120,000 people, to Dutton's
electoral office in Brisbane in the hope that the minister would give
compassionate consideration to their cause.
"Today
is make or break, whatever we do today will help with our case," Maria, a
registered nurse who works in a Queensland hospital, told the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation.
"Australia
is our home. Because we have been here for nearly eight years and we've been
assimilated in the community.
"Our
immediate family are here, which is our support.... I have my work here and I
can actually provide for Tyrone."
The family
said Tyrone did not speak Filipino or have any close relatives remaining in the
Philippines, with his grandmother, grandfather, uncle, aunt and cousins all
living in the Australian city of Townsville.
Call for
common sense
Dutton said
the immigration department was preparing a report for him on the case, and in
the meantime a bridging visa -- which typically covers a 28-day period -- would
be issued for the mother and son.
"In
this case we need to apply common sense," he told the ABC.
"We're
a compassionate society and we want to help families in difficult
situations."
"There's
no fear that anybody is going to be deported, there will be a bridging visa
which will be issued which is standard practice in these matters," he
added.
Dutton stressed
that such decisions were always hard and emotional, but the immigration
department must consider the costs of conditions such as autism on the
provision of services.
"It is
a difficult area because we have thousands of applications... but we have to be
sensible about the number to whom we should provide that support," he
said.
Dutton said
a decision would likely be made within weeks, and it would take into account
the fact that Sevilla was employed and could look after her son.
Australia
takes a hard line against asylum-seekers arriving by boat, refusing them
resettlement in the country even if they are found to be refugees and sending
them instead to Pacific states.
But Maria
Sevilla, who said she pays tax and has private health insurance, said she was
overwhelmed by the support she had received from the Australian community.
"I am
hoping that he (the minister) will see that there are a lot of Australians that
are really supporting us," she said.
"I am
still hoping that we will have a positive outcome."
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