Let Ruby stay

Newshub reports:

A Christchurch family is being forced to leave New Zealand because the parents can’t get residency for their four-year-old daughter.

Ruby O’Connor was born in New Zealand. Her mum Kerry Hayes, dad Bryan O’Connor, and baby brother Leon can all get residency, but she can’t because she has a disability and her medical bills run into the tens of thousands of dollars a year.

Her parents say their immigration experience has been demoralising and disgraceful, and want changes to the policy.

“She’s just not wanted, and it’s pretty much massive discrimination against someone with a disability even though she was born here,” Hayes tells Newshub.

“You just feel like you’re not good enough, you know.”

The family’s heartbreaking story began with such promise. O’Connor is a builder who moved to New Zealand at the end of 2013 to help with the rebuild in Christchurch after the earthquakes.

Hayes, a beauty therapist, arrived a month or so later, attracted to the lifestyle. Both are Irish and had working visas.

They met in Christchurch, fell in love, and in 2017 welcomed Ruby into their world. 

They key thing is the parents have been legally living and working in New Zealand for almost nine years. They are not overstayers. They are not illegal immigrants.

When Ruby was two, she started having seizures and soon after she was diagnosed with TBCK – a rare neuro-genetic syndrome. She’s the only person in New Zealand to have it and one of just 17 worldwide.

“It affects every aspect of her life. She can’t walk, talk, she has seizures, she’s peg-fed, so she can’t have anything orally,” Hayes says.

She’s also visually impaired, has osteoporosis, and is immune-compromised. She’s already been hospitalised, in ICU, with serious bouts of pneumonia.

“We nearly lost her on two occasions, it was quite close. They had no hope for her but she kept fighting,” Hayes says.

As Ruby fought for her life, her parents fought hard to keep her in the country, in the only home she’s known.

Poor little mite.

The family wanted residency since New Zealand has been their home for eight years, but they say they were told only mum, dad, and their healthy baby son Leon could stay. Ruby couldn’t because of her disability and medical needs. Even though she was born here, she’s included in her parent’s resident visa application as a dependent child. 

The family spent thousands of dollars and thousands of hours to secure her residency – applications, lawyers, letters – but to no avail.

“We just get this block every time and she’s constantly refused because of her medical criteria,” Hayes says.

Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March says this is a disgrace and he wants the immigration disability policy changed.

A rare occasion when I agree with him.

It would be different if the parents were not already in New Zealand (legally). If a family resident overseas has a seriously disabled child and they apply to move to New Zealand, then the costs of healthcare for that child should be taken into account. Migration to New Zealand is a privilege, not a right.

But this is a couple who have lived here for almost nine years. Their child was legally born in New Zealand. The child has never lived elsewhere. The Government should so some kindness and give Ruby residency.