Distraught family faces eviction from Australia after 13 years
A family in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire are facing the threat of deportation after 13 years living in Australia, with the Federal Government reportedly declining every attempt they’ve made at gaining permanent residency.
Speaking to 2GB’s Chris O’Keefe, Emma and Nathan Mills explained how they’d left the United Kingdom in 2010 to start a new life down under with their two children, entering Australia on 457 skilled worker visas - visas for skilled migrants.
They had plans to care for Emma’s dad, who is an Australian citizen with serious spinal injuries and mental health concerns.
The young family settled in Sydney’s Sutherland Shire with their kids, and have spent the past 13 years making a home for themselves, and even welcoming a third child - daughter Daisy, who is now 11. Their eldest son James is now 21 and is considered “a respectable young member of the community”, while their second son Harry is undertaking his HSC.
According to Emma and Nathan, they have done everything in their power to secure permanent residency for themselves and their children, but have been declined by the government at every stage.
And now, they are facing an unwanted return to the country they left all those years ago.
“Are we going to be sent back to a country that is essentially foreign to us all now?” Emma said to O’Keefe. “My children don’t have lives or memories of the UK, they have memories of Australia. This is their home.”
She went on to stress that they’d “built a life here”, and that it was hard for any of them to “comprehend that this is even happening.”
Emma did explain that changes to the immigration system, and her husband’s employment, were factors in their ability to apply for permanent residency - he works as an employment advisor, while she is a full-time carer to their children and to her father. They’d even tried to apply for a carer visa, but were rejected at that turn, too.
And as Emma told O’Keefe, she’d only found out about the rejection when her kid’s schools called to inform her their enrolments had been cancelled due to the visa revocations.
"The principal informed me that from the Monday she [Daisy] was not permitted to return to school. I was in shock and disbelief," she said.
"I then got a call from Engadine High School with the same news. What shocked me and frightened me the most is my eldest son [still attending school] was due to sit his HSC the following week."
And while the family did win an appeal in the Administrative Appeals Tribunal that should have permitted them to stay in Australia, they were never granted visas, and even their Medicare was cancelled.
Things took another turn for the worst on April 13, when they received a letter from the Home Affairs Department that gave them 35 days to leave the country, or else they may be detained and deported.
Emma revealed that her father was “absolutely devastated” about how the situation was transpiring, and that they’d “tried to do everything the right way” to no avail.
Still, they’re determined to keep fighting to stay in their home, and have appealed for Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to reconsider the potentially life-changing decision.
Images: Drive with Chris O’Keefe / 2GB