Let Aidhan stay - Don't target disabled kids for deportation
Associate Minister of Immigration Hon Chris Penk and the House of Representatives
We request that the Associate Minister of Immigration intervene to remove the directive for priority enforcement action and grant Aidhan NZ residency.
We request that the House of Representatives abolish the discriminatory Acceptable Standard of Health (ASH) immigration requirements and uphold the human rights of migrants with disabilities and health conditions
In a welcoming Aotearoa, no child would be targeted for deportation just because they are disabled. But this is exactly what the Associate Minister for immigration has authorised for autistic five-year-old Aidhan. Indian parents Nithin Mankeel and Aparna Jayandhan Geetha are healthcare workers who have followed their long-held dream to make a home together in Whakatū Nelson. But our discriminatory Acceptable standard of Health (ASH) immigration requirements don't see the valuable contribution the whole family is making; they see only potential financial costs and not human worth.
His parents share that Aidhan is a charismatic child with a warm, cute smile for everyone. He loves swimming classes and listening to music. He is gentle, never harmful, and shows love to the people around him. He can express his needs clearly. He is a charming boy—like a young bud in a garden. With the right support, he will blossom into a beautiful flower; but if that bud is picked too early, it cannot grow.
It's hard for Aidhan to flourish while his family are fighting his deportation. The immigration processes are expensive, stressful and exhausting. Let's show the family that the community is behind them.
Please sign to tell the Minister and all our MPs that no disabled child should be targeted for deportation and urge them to remove this directive for Aidhan immediately. We are further calling on Parliament to abolish the discriminatory policy that has caused Aidhan's family to face this injustice in the first place.
Petition by
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To:
Associate Minister of Immigration Hon Chris Penk and the House of Representatives
From:
[Your Name]
We request that the Associate Minister of Immigration intervene to remove the directive for priority enforcement action and grant Aidhan NZ residency.
We request that the House of Representatives abolish the discriminatory Acceptable Standard of Health (ASH) immigration requirements and uphold the human rights of migrants with disabilities and health conditions
Indian parents Nithin Mankeel and Aparna Jayandhan Geetha are healthcare workers who have followed their long-held dream to make a home together in Whakatū Nelson. But our discriminatory Acceptable standard of Health (ASH) immigration requirements don't see the valuable contribution the whole family is making; they see only potential financial costs and not human worth.
His parents share that Aidhan is a charismatic child with a warm, cute smile for everyone. He loves swimming classes and listening to music. He is gentle, never harmful, and shows love to the people around him. He can express his needs clearly. He is a charming boy—like a young bud in a garden. With the right support, he will blossom into a beautiful flower; but if that bud is picked too early, it cannot grow.
Placing a directive for priority enforcement action against a child is unconscionable and this must be cancelled urgently.
Further, since 1999, the Acceptable Standard of Health (ASH) requirements have been a discriminatory stain on Aotearoa's reputation as a country of equal opportunities for everyone. They have created a hierarchy in which disabled immigrants and families with disabled kids go through hellish visa application processes where they are obliged to prove their worth at every turn. These processes are expensive, exhausting, demoralising, and most of all, unjust.
As tauiwi in these lands, we have been welcomed here under the generous korowai of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. The deficit view of disability taken by the ASH requirements comes from a colonial mindset and we tautoko calls by Māori scholars to move towards a Tiriti-based immigration system centred on values like manaakitanga, utu and aroha (care and hospitality, reciprocity and love).
The ASH requirements are a breach of disabled people's and children's rights under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. UN experts have recommended to the New Zealand government to work closely with disabled people's organisations, migrants and refugees to end the disability discrimination being caused by the ASH requirements.
We urge the House of Representatives to consider the removal of these requirements without delay.