Australia to deport boy and family to Bangladesh due to his ‘mild disability’

A six-year-old boy of Bangladeshi origin is facing deportation from Australia along with his family after their petition for permanent residency was denied due to their son's mild disability, reports The Daily Mail.

Adyan bin Hasan and his parents Dr Mahedi Hasan Bhuiyan and Dr Rebaka Sultana, were refused residency in 2015 after the government said their son did not meet the necessary health criteria to remain in Australia.

Adyan, who was born in Australia's Geelong, suffered a stroke at birth and now lives with a very mild form of cerebral palsy which prevents him from picking up heavy things or climbing.

The Department of Home Affairs ruled against the family's plea to stay in the country, saying the boy would require 'ongoing therapy support' and therefore be considered a ‘burden’ on the country's health system, according to the report.

A subsequent appeal to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal was unsuccessful as the governing body said they could not overturn the boy's health assessment.

The family's only hope now is for Immigration Minister David Coleman to intervene in their case and appeal the decision - otherwise they'll be given two weeks to pack up and go back to Bangladesh.

Bhuiyan told the Geelong Advertiser that the family has been living 'in limbo' and he has been struggling to concentrate at work with their potential deportation looming.

Their temporary visas have been extended until Mar 24 as they wait for a final decision, he said.

Despite Adyan's diagnosis, the boy's father said medical reports show he is cognitively developing like any other child.

His parents say Adyan, who loves going to the library in his hometown of Geelong in Victoria, requires limited physiotherapy and help from an occupational therapist.

'He is independent in his physical movement - Adyan loves to run, jump and play like any other [6] year old, carefree kid,' they wrote in a Change.org petition that has gained more than 2,600 signatures so far.

Bhuiyan migrated to Australia from Bangladesh in 2011 and married Sultana next year, who joined him in Australia in 2013. Later that year their son, Adyan, was born at a Geelong hospital.

'No-one would want to socialise with him,' Bhuiyan told ABC News in November. 'They think if the other child meets with him it will be contagious.'

Bhuiyan had been offered a job at Melbourne's Deakin University, while Sultana is hoping to take an exam enabling her to be a qualified GP in Australia.

The government has already warned the family though the minister only overturns decisions in the case of compelling compassionate or humanitarian factors.

“It is so important to us Adyan continues to develop as a normal kid in Australia, the only home he has ever known,” Bhuiyan wrote in an online petition to Coleman.

“We are afraid that if Adyan is deported to Bangladesh, his development-related therapy will stop,” he said.