Expat seeks help for disabled girl
A South African expatriate is urging New Zealanders to help fight the proposed deportation of a blind 5-year-old South African girl living in Geraldine.
Justin McCabe, an IT consultant living in Wellington, has started a petition on the change.org website opposing the planned deportation of Caitlyn Davies.
Caitlyn, 5, her mum, Charmaine, and her father and brother, both called Jonathan, live on a farm near Geraldine,
All of the family except Caitlyn have been granted visas to stay in the country by Immigration New Zealand.
The Immigration and Protection Tribunal has ruled that Caitlyn – who is blind, suffers from global development delay, and has chronic medical conditions – should not be given a visa because she would impose significant costs on New Zealand’s health and education systems.
As the tribunal’s decision meant Caitlyn would have to be deported, the family appealed it to the High Court, but their appeal was rejected.
McCabe read about the family’s plight on the Stuff website while on holiday in South Africa.
He said despite having never met the family, as a fellow South African their situation had compelled him to act.
‘‘I know what they are sending this child back to. As New Zealanders we have all these tools and education support systems in place . . . coming back to South Africa she is going to have nothing, she is going to have a life of living indoors . . . or living in a home care facility.
‘‘I used to be a journalist here in South Africa so I am well aware of what she is coming back to. She’ll have no opportunity to advance herself or educate herself in secondary or tertiary study, she’s coming back to nothing.’’
McCabe said as a parent himself he appreciated Caitlyn’s parents had come to New Zealand to try provide a better life for themselves and their children.
‘‘Now they have had that ripped out from underneath them because it’s not only the one child, it’s the entire family. The family’s not going to let the child go back . . . the family unit will stay together.’’
McCabe understood the reasoning put forward by Immigration New Zealand but he criticised the lack of humanity behind it.
‘‘You have still got to make decisions based on ‘are you able to go to sleep at night?’ You can’t hide behind bureaucratic process, it’s so cold and heartless.’’
He had already reached out to the family and had exchanged a couple of messages with Charmaine, who had thanked him for starting the petition, he said.
He said 856 people had signed the petition so far. However, given the expatriate South African population in New Zealand, who knew what the family could potentially be going back to, he expected more people would sign it.
Immigration lawyer Jennifer Bensley, who has been representing the family on immigration matters from the beginning, had told them the petition could help their case.
‘‘Certainly it won’t be a bad thing to have a petition going, and we can present that to Immigration as part of everything we are doing for Caitlyn,’’ she said.
‘‘Charmaine is cautious about what’s going to happen . . . I think she is heartened by a lot of the positive feedback and the community certainly wants to support them and believes they are of value to the community.
‘‘But we have tried to warn her, Immigration [New Zealand] is the decision-maker on this.’’
Bensley said she and the family were exploring other avenues to fight their case.
She had also submitted another visa application for Caitlyn, which she was waiting to see the outcome of.
‘‘Whether or not we take the appeal further, that’s a discussion we need to have with them,’’ Bensley said.