A single mother is at risk of having her non-verbal autistic son deported due to an immigration issue with his uninvolved father.
Seven-year-old Dishon Warnakulasooriya was born at Melbourne’s Monash Hospital while his parents were on bridging visas, awaiting permanent residency.
Dishon’s mother, Janatha Purushuthaman, is Malaysian and came to Australia on a protection visa, while his father, a Sri Lankan citizen, entered the country illegally.
Because both parents were on temporary visas, Dishon was not automatically granted Australian citizenship.
Instead, they gave him the same visa as his father, classifying him as an “illegal noncitizen.”
Although his mother became an Australian citizen after separating from his father, Dishon still holds Sri Lankan nationality.
Dishon currently holds a class E bridging visa, which allows him to remain in Australia legally while his case is reviewed.
However, this visa restricts your access to vital services such as Medicare and the NDIS, which are crucial to managing your learning difficulties.
Working Australian single mother Janatha Purushuthaman is struggling to care for her autistic son Dishon (both pictured) while he is on an illegal immigrant bridging visa.
Immigration lawyers have informed Ms Purushuthaman that she will have to wait for a decision or until Dishon turns 10 before her situation can be resolved.
However, Mrs. Purushuthaman fears that by then it will be too late and her son will already be missing. He lost essential after-school care through the NDIS because he was not granted visa status.
‘Dishon has missed out on critical early interventions due to our current visa issues, and I fear these circumstances are compromising his potential for a better life.
“I once dreamed of continuing my studies, but because of this situation I had to put all my dreams aside and had to work hard to support myself and my son.”
“For the last seven years I have been feeding him with my own money, he is my blood and I have been serving him,” he said.
“It’s not fair, he was born here and it’s really not fair that other people who come from other countries can be seen as people and given a proper visa.”
He said Dishon should not be punished for his father’s actions, saying he is “just a kid, an Australian kid.”
Dishon was granted the visa because his absent father arrived illegally in Australia from Sri Lanka, meaning he cannot receive the Medicare or NDIS support he desperately needs.
“He should be treated as an Australian and not discriminated against as a ‘boat arrival’ (illegal), he was born here,” Ms Purushuthaman said.
To support Dishon as a single mother, Ms. Purushuthaman has been forced to work the night shift.
“If I don’t work the night shift, the salary will be much lower and it won’t be enough for me and my son to live on,” he explained.
The frustrated mother has even resorted to writing letters to her local MP and even Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to help expedite the matter.
But she was only told to wait for the Department of the Interior to make a decision, which led her to create a request to get support
“For privacy reasons, the Department cannot comment on individual cases,” a Department of Home Affairs spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia.
‘All visa applicants must meet the requirements established in immigration legislation.
‘Assessments for a permanent visa often cannot be completed quickly due to the need to consider the visa application based on a variety of criteria, such as family relationship, health, character, custody, best interests of any dependents and eligibility criteria. identity, before a visa can be granted.
