Australia to deport ailing British war veteran

Australia is set to deport a 92-year-old British war veteran, after the government decided he’d be a burden on the health system.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported the case of James Bradley, who moved with his wife Peggie, 91, to Australia in 2007 to join their daughter Sharon. 

Although the couple passed mandatory health checks the time, a seven-year wait for their Aged Parent visas to be processed meant that Bradley’s health had declined – he now needs a walking frame and has early-stage dementia – and he failed follow-up health checks.

The SMH reported that the couple were denied a visa – they are assessed jointly – because Bradley’s condition would likely “result in a significant cost to the Australian community in the areas of health care and community services.”  Subsequent appeals to the government have so far failed.

The Aged Parent visa class lets older people live in Australia if their child is an Australian citizen or permanent resident, or an eligible New Zealand citizen who’s settled in Australia. Such a visa does not require a large bond payment to cover any future costs incurred by the visa-holder, and also allows the holder to use Medicare.

But the Department of Immigration’s website warns on multiple occasions that there is a wait time of up to 30 years for an Aged Parent visa to be approved, and says that applicants “might be able to get this visa” if they’re “prepared to wait in a queue.”

The department instead encourages would-be residents to apply for a Contributory Aged Parent visa, which allows the applicant or their family to put aside a bond to cover potential future health and welfare costs.

This class of visa takes less than two years to finalise, the immigration department’s site says.

Do you think it’s fair to deport an aged migrant to save the Australian taxpayer their healthcare costs? Is requesting a bond to cover such costs a good way of allowing parents to join their children in Australia?