A Sydney doctor has been denied permanent residency due to the fact that her 15 year-old daughter has a developmental delay and failed government health checks.
Dr Nasrin Haque, who is a full-time practicing GP has lived in Australia with daughter Sumaya, 15, and son Sakir, 14, for eight years.
The application was rejected because Sumaya’s condition, which is reported as autism, was deemed a burden on Australian taxpayers despite a petition on Change.org garnering over 35,000 signatures.
“I still cannot believe how this could be happening. I cry every time I think she has to leave,” Dr Haque told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“My children have been doing well in school, they have a lot of friends. I’m working in two practices, I have a lot of patients … I have been doing everything I can, hoping to have a good result.”
Dr Haque, originally from Bangladesh, has the option or remaining in Australia on a temporary visa with her son, or leaving with Sumaya for Hungary, where her husband, also a doctor lives.
“It’s an impossible decision,” Dr Haque added. “I cannot imagine how I will live without my daughter … I don’t actually know what I will do.”
Accoridng to The Guardian, the move has been condemned by the medical fraternity as “disgusting” and “reprehensible”.