A British couple fear deportation by the Australian government after being diagnosed with MS, which has led authorities to deem their healthcare costs “too expensive” for Medicare.
UK tourists warned over diagnosis which could see them ‘kicked out’
UK tourists have been warned over a diagnosis which could see them DEPORTED from Australia. A British couple fear deportation by the Australian government after being diagnosed with MS, which has led authorities to deem their healthcare costs “too expensive” for Medicare.
Jessica Mathers, 30, a project manager and DJ, fears she will be sent back to the UK – despite settling in Australia since 2017 – due to the serious medical care she needs. She and her boyfriend Rob O’Leary, who runs his own successful carpentry and construction firm, told MailOnline fear having to pack their bags and quit their Sydney home.
Ms Mathers explained: “I was diagnosed three years ago, and I’ve been on medication, Oculus, which is a six-monthly infusion I get in hospital. We pay a Medicare levy via our taxes, but generally we pay towards our appointments and any associated costs that aren’t included.”
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O’Leary said: “We’ve been here nearly ten years now, and ever since Jess was diagnosed, that was when we found out through the Immigration department just by an email that we might not be able to stay in the country due to Jessica’s diagnosis.
“Obviously, with that email, there was no kind of consideration of our previous life. It was basing it off what’s happened there, and that was kind of it.” O’Leary admitted: “It made the whole future really uncertain for us. I couldn’t progress with my business, Jess struggled with work, so it’s been a difficult situation.”
He added: “That is pretty much how it is and that’s how it’s explained in the written documents we’ve got, she doesn’t meet the Medicare minimum requirements for the visa.”
The couple stated: “When we first appealed it, we asked if there was an option to boost our private health care or to even pay for the treatment, and that isn’t an option, it’s not something that they allow for. It’s kind of black and white, the law doesn’t allow for any consideration, any compassionate grounds. And that’s what we’re appealing against.
“We got rejected by the government 18 months ago and we have been waiting ever since, and we’ve not really heard anything. We haven’t even received a tribunal date. So at present we’re waiting on the tribunal date because the minister has, since I started a petition, said that he won’t do anything until after that.”
The Australian Department of Home Affairs has said it “cannot comment on individual cases”.