Aussie officials have a truly BIZARRE dummy spit at the family of a dying man for using a famous two-word Australian phrase – as they’re hit with an unthinkable blow

The wife and son of a 76-year-old man dying from heart disease, dementia and diabetes on the Gold Coast have been denied visas to visit him in Australia before he passes away. 

Dhanarajan Chetty arrived in Australia on a visitor visa to see relatives but his health rapidly deteriorated to the point where he could not travel back home to South Africa.

Mr Chetty’s distraught wife, Maya Dev Chetty, who has been with her husband for 58 years and rarely apart, wants to be with him in what may be his final days. 

Mrs Chetty and their son Vinothan were initially going to travel with Mr Chetty but Vinothan fell ill with tuberculosis and they had to stay back home in KwaZulu-Natal province, which has a large population of ethnic Indians like the Chettys.

As Dhanarajan’s health deteriorated, mother and son have made further visitor visa applications which have all been refused.

Now Mr Chetty is in a terminal state, and the family is desperate for one last reunion.

‘Maya and Dhanarajan have been together for 58 years and have never been apart until the last few years,’ their son-in-law Ruben Govender told Daily Mail Australia.

‘It was only when he became too ill while visiting here to travel back home to South Africa that they have been forced apart, and Maya has been refused permission by immigration officials to come here and be with him for the last time.’ 

Dhanarajan Chetty, 76, (above in a Gold Coast hospital) was visiting Australian relatives when he fell ill and rapidly declined, becoming too sick to travel back home to South Africa

Mr Chetty’s daughter, Saiann Govender, and her family know that Dhanarajan, 76, hasn’t got much time left and sometimes he ‘sits and cries’ for his wife of 58 years, Maya, who he hasn’t seen for almost three years

Dhanarajan with his wife Maya Chetty (left) and her sister (pink dress) back in South Africa before Mr Chetty visited family in Australia and fell gravely ill

 The Gold Coast clinic where Mr Chetty has been treated said he ‘was in good physical health when he arrived in Australia’ but now is ‘in terminal decline’.

Our Medical Home Gold Coast clinic said Mr Chetty suffers from heart disease, prostate disease, diabetes and significant dementia and ‘has very poor cardiac status, is frail, immobile and suffering from depression’.

Mr Govender’s son, a medical student, is caring for his grandfather, who is ‘in and out of hospital, can’t walk, and sometimes just sits and cries’. 

Mr Chetty, who arrived on a visitor visa in 2022, was granted a medical visa by the Federal Government when he became to ill to return home. Since then, Mrs Chetty and her son have unsuccessfully applied for visitor visas.

On the most recent occasion when Mrs Chetty and her son made applications, they were rejected by the Federal Department of Home Affairs which claimed the applications had not included the required Form 1149 document. 

Mr Shneider wrote to the department last month saying the forms in question were included and that ‘even a cursory inspection by Blind Freddy … would clearly show that (the forms) were in fact lodged’.

A Home Affairs official in Pretoria, South Africa’s administrative capital, responded to Mr Shneider’s letter saying ‘I am concerned you chose to communicate … in a disrespectful and discourteous manner including name calling.

‘I would ask that in future you recognise under the principles of the Home Affairs Service Charter that such comments would not reflect an appropriate level of courtesy and respect to our staff.’ 

Mr Shneider told Daily Mail Australia that he believed the department staffer was complaining about the use of the words ‘Blind Freddy’.

Saiann Govender’s father Dhanarajan has been supported by her family on the Gold Coast since he arrived for a visit and his health rapidly deteriorated

The Chettys have a large family in South Africa. Pictured above is Maya Chetty (pink sari), Dhanarajan (cream suit with dark tie) and children including their daughter Saiann (with the pink flower)

The old saying, ‘even Blind Freddy could see that’ is an Australian idiom used to express that something is obvious or easily noticeable, and not a personal slur.

Mr Shneider told the department that in no way could his email be construed as disrespectful or discourteous or name calling.

‘My dealings with departmental officers for more than the last twenty years have been well within the principles … within appropriate levels of courtesy and respect, Mr Shneider said.

‘Your unfounded last sentence is hurtful and totally unwarranted and therefore well outside the principles you claim to espouse.’

Mr Shneider has made a formal complaint to the Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke.

In another letter rejecting the visa requests, Home Affairs said it had to assess whether applicants were seeking ‘a genuine visit’ and to take into account their ‘incentive to return home’.

‘The likelihood of the applicant not abiding by the conditions of their visas, or seeking to remain in Australia, is also a matter that must be assessed.’

The Department said that ‘support or guarantees given by family and friends in Australia … is not sufficient evidence of a genuine visit.’ 

Migration agent Stan Shneider invokes ‘Blind Freddy’ to highlight the obviousness of a situation to migration officials

Maya and Dhanarajan Chetty have been together for 58 years and were rarely apart until he suddenly fell ill in Australia and became unfit to travel. Mrs Chetty has been denied a visa to visit her husband on his deathbed on the Gold Coast

The response to Mr Shneider’s ‘Blind Freddy’ remark was a very huffy email accusing him of writing ‘in a disrespectful and discourteous manner including name calling’

Mr Shneider said the Department should take into account that Mrs Chetty had not overstayed her visa on two previous visits.

‘Maya Chetty has visited Australia twice before and returned both times back to South Africa where she has a large family, including twin children, grandchildren and nieces and nephews. 

‘She was always compliant with her visitor visa and would have been so again if she had made it here in 2022 when she was granted a visa to travel with Dhanarajan, but had to wait as Vinothan fell ill.

‘He is completely well now, but the family is in limbo.

‘They didn’t want to overstep the terms of any previous visa. They have always been compliant. They hoped Dhanarajan would recover to the point that he could fly home.

‘Instead he just deteriorated, and he is too fragile and can get infected easily which would be terminal for him.’

Mrs Chetty’s daughter Saiann Govender and husband Ruben are Australian citizens and run a real estate business on the Gold Coast, where they have three grown children.

Mr Govender said it was ludicrous for migration officials to believe that 77-year-old Maya would come over here, overstay her visa, and ‘disappear’.

Maya Chetty, above with her children, son Vinothan  and daughter Devigee, in South Africa is anxious that she may never see her husband of 58 years before he dies 

‘She is depressed and anxious too because she has been unable to see the person she has been with for more than 50 years.’ 

Mr Shneider made a direct plea to the Assistant Minister for Immigration Matt Thistlethwaite but a response said ‘the Australian Government is currently in caretaker mode’ in the lead-up to the May 3 election.

Generally, policy shifts or reversals are not made in the time between the dissolving of the previous parliament, which happened on March 28, and the swearing-in of the next.

‘Staffers have clearly not advised the minister of the Chetty’s plight and of the urgency of the case,’ Mr Shneider said.

‘I believe both ministers Burke and Thistlethwaite are extremely compassionate people who would always do the right thing and I have personal knowledge of this, but I believe they don’t know about the case and are being shielded by public servants.’ 

***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk