Families with disabilities face challenges due to Australia’s strict immigration policies. Systemic problems are highlighted when a Scottish family risks deportation because of their son’s cystic fibrosis.

A two-year-old Australian boy with cystic fibrosis has a bleak future ahead of him. Due to his medical condition, which makes him a financial burden under Australian immigration laws, his parents, who moved from Scotland eight years ago to take up essential duties (his father as a painter and decorator, and his mother as a nursery teacher), may have to leave the nation.

Australia projects that the boy’s medical care may require approximately $1.3 million. The family is still facing the possibility of deportation in the event that their appeal is denied. This case emphasises the hard reality that immigrants with impairments or long-term medical illnesses must contend with: they are subject to severe immigration restrictions regardless of their contributions or capacity to pay for healthcare on a private basis.

About 30,000 Britons emigrated to Australia in the previous year, however there are substantial obstacles for individuals who have family members with disabilities. In one such instance, the Queensland Police Service and the South Australian Police have extended employment offers to a former officer of the London Metropolitan Police. Despite her daughter’s good health and active lifestyle, her application for a visa is unlikely to be granted due to her daughter’s Down syndrome.

The main problem is Australia’s medical requirements for visas, which state that applicants are usually turned down if their estimated health and welfare costs surpass AU$86,000 over a ten-year period. Despite a 2019 United Nations warning that Australia may be discriminating against disabled migrants and their families, this policy is still in place. The policy bears similarities to Australia’s exclusionary White Australia Policy, which was once in place but is now obsolete.

The Disability Discrimination Act of 1992 did not do away with the 1901 health-related exclusions, in spite of advances like the Racial Discrimination Act of 1975. The policies in place, according to critics, are discriminatory and out of date.


The Australian Immigration Minister refrained from commenting, although the department did state that the health standards are currently being reviewed. Lawmakers have proposed changes to make it easier for immigrants with disabilities to be included.

Families like as this one are stuck in a state of uncertainty, praying for a humanitarian outcome that will grant them permission to remain in the nation they call home.