Dad’s major mistake stops boy accessing Medicare and NDIS in Melbourne

A single mother is at risk of having her non-verbal autistic son deported because of an immigration issue with his uninvolved father.

Seven-year-old Dishon Warnakulasooriya was born at Monash Hospital in Melbourne 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 national, entered the country illegally.

Because both parents were temporary visa holders, Dishon wasn’t automatically granted Australian citizenship.

Instead, he was given the same visa as his father, classifying him as an ‘unlawful non-citizen.’

Even though his mother later became an Australian citizen after separating from his father, Dishon still holds Sri Lankan nationality. 

Dishon is currently on an E-class bridging visa, which allows him to stay in Australia legally while his case is reviewed. 

However, this visa restricts his access to vital services like Medicare and the NDIS, which are crucial for managing his learning difficulties.

Immigration lawyers have informed Ms Purushuthaman that she will either have to wait for a decision or until Dishon turns 10 years old before his situation can be resolved. 

However, Ms Purushuthaman fears that by then it will be too late, and her son was already missing out on essential afterschool care through the NDIS because he wasn’t granted her visa status.

‘Dishon has missed out on critical early interventions due to our current visa issues, and I fear that his potential for a better life is being compromised by these circumstances.

‘I once had a dream to continue my further education but due to this situation I have to put all my dreams aside and had to work hard to provide for myself and my son.’

‘For the past seven years I’ve been feeding him off of my own money, he’s my blood and I have been serving him,’ she said.

‘It is not fair, he was born here and it is really not fair that some other people coming from other countries can be seen as people and given a proper visa.’

She said Dishon should not be punished for his father’s actions, saying he’s ‘just a child, an Australian child’.

Dishon was given the visa because his absent father arrived in Australia from Sri Lanka illegally, meaning he can’t receive Medicare or NDIS support he desperately needs

‘He should be treated as Australian and not be discriminated as a ‘boat’ (illegal) arrival – he was born here,’ Ms Purushuthaman said.

To support Dishon as a single mother, Ms Purushuthaman has been forced to work night shifts.

‘If I don’t take the night shift, the pay will be much lower, and it won’t be enough for me and my son to live on,’ she explained.

The frustrated mother has even turned to writing letters to her local MP and even Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to help expedite the issue.

But she has only been told to wait for the Department of Home Affairs to make their decision, leading to her creating a petition to drum up 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 set out in migration legislation. 

‘Assessments of a permanent visa often cannot be completed quickly, because of the need to consider the visa application against a range of criteria, such as family relationships, health, character, custody, best interests of any dependants, and identity criteria, before a visa can be granted.’