NZ News
Nurse’s autistic son could face deportation after Immigration NZ rejects visa
A Nelson nurse says he is living in fear as he tries to stop the deportation of his autistic child.
Immigration New Zealand has denied 5-year-old Aidhan Nithin a pathway to live in New Zealand, after finding he is likely to impose significant costs or demands on health and education services.
The decision has prompted a rally, two petitions and two unsuccessful requests for Associate Immigration Minister Chris Penk to intervene.
The boy’s father, Nithin Mankeel, said he was pleading officials not to separate the family.
“It’s really heartbreaking. I don’t know how, mentally, I can cope, if that’s going to happen,” he said.
Mankeel moved to New Zealand from India in January 2024, followed by his wife and son later that year.
He works as an elder care nurse, and his wife Aparna Jayandhan Geetha works as a senior healthcare assistant.
Mankeel, whose job is on Tier 1 of INZ’s Green List, applied for the straight-to-residence pathway, listing his family members as secondary applicants.
INZ sought more information about Aidhan’s delayed speech abilities, leading to a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and global developmental delay.
The agency then invited the family to submit further evidence to support a medical waiver, Mankeel said.
“I’ve consulted many doctors, psychologists and GPs, the latest GP reports state that he’s improving once he started kindergarten … he’s doing a lot of things independently,” he said.
After months of back-and-forth with INZ, Mankeel said he was told all three visas would be declined unless he withdrew Aidhan’s name and applied separately for a different visa category.
Mankeel did that; his and Geetha’s visas were approved in June, while Aidhan’s application for a new visitor visa was declined in July.
INZ found Aidhan was likely to impose significant costs or demands on health and education services, which under new rules introduced in March, meant he could not be granted a visa.
“His status is now unlawful because he doesn’t have any valid visa … so there’s a liability of deportation,” Mankeel said.
“I was really, really shocked.”
Associate Immigration Minister Chris Penk has the power to intervene in exceptional cases, but declined the family’s appeal. Photo: NICK MONRO / RNZ
Appeals blocked, family seeks discretionary route
The family lodged an appeal to the independent Immigration and Protection Tribunal on humanitarian grounds, but it was not accepted as it was submitted after the statutory 42-day timeframe.
They also appealed to Associate Immigration Minister Chris Penk, who under the Immigration Act 2009 has the power to intervene in exceptional cases.
Penk declined that appeal, and declined to consider a second appeal from Nelson MP Rachel Boyack on the basis there was no new extenuating or compelling information.
INZ confirmed it was reviewing a Section 61 request lodged by the family, a discretionary application that allows people unlawfully in New Zealand to seek a visa under the Immigration Act 2009.
If approved, it could restore Aidhan’s lawful status, it said.
The agency said it would not take any compliance action while it assessed that request.
MP and residents call for compassion
Boyack described the situation as “deeply unfair”.
“You can’t recruit essential health workers into New Zealand and then deport their child. If Aidhan is deported, then the family will leave as well. And that will be a massive loss for Nelson,” she said.
She said she had received countless emails from people who worked alongside Mankeel, were cared for by him, or were family members of people he cared for in their final days.
All of them spoke highly of his work as a nurse, she said.
Nelson MP Rachel Boyack said the community would continue fighting for Aidhan Nithin. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
“Nurses have said he’s the best healthcare professional they’ve worked alongside. I just can’t understand how a minister could read all of this evidence from members of the community and not look at it, you know, in a holistic way and look at what the benefits would be for Nelson in allowing this whole family to stay.”
The community would continue fighting, she said.
More than 4000 people have signed a petition asking officials to rethink the decision.
A second petition is calling on the House of Representatives to abolish the Acceptable Standard of Health immigration requirements.
Earlier this week, a rally was held in central Nelson to support the family.
“It was organised at the very last minute and had around 200 people turn out,” Boyack said.
Immigration New Zealand: Health rules must be applied consistently
INZ deputy chief operating officer Jeannie Melville said applicants assessed as likely to impose significant costs on health and education services could not be granted a waiver, “regardless of family circumstances or occupation”.
The requirements were designed to balance individual cases with the sustainability of the country’s health and education systems, she said.
The agency clearly advised Mankeel of the implications of withdrawing Aidhan from the original application, “including the impact on future visa applications”, she said.
“We understand the challenges faced by Mr Mankeel and his family; however, immigration health requirements are very specific and can only be waived through ministerial intervention. The granting of residence to Mr Mankeel and his wife was based on the critical need for healthcare professionals in New Zealand, as reflected by their inclusion in Tier 1 of the Green List. All secondary applicants must still meet the health criteria for their visa category,” she said.
The agency acknowledged the concerns raised by the family, local representatives and community members.
“INZ carefully considered all information provided, including evidence of parental support and Aidhan’s integration into his community. However, immigration decisions must be made in line with the Immigration Act and associated instructions. These rules help keep decisions consistent, while protecting the future of New Zealand’s health and education services. We recognise this is a difficult outcome for the family and will continue to engage with them to manage the process compassionately.”
Mankeel said he and his wife had given up everything to make Nelson their home.
“I don’t have any licence to practise in India because we cancelled that and got the registration here. We left everything and came [here],” he said.
He said his elderly parents in India would not be able to care for Aidhan, and the thought of being separated was unbearable.
“Deporting my child is like cutting off my arm,” he said.
Mankeel said the response from colleagues and neighbours and others had been overwhelming.
“We are living full of fear but I’m getting so much support from many, many different communities,” he said.
“I’m getting weaker day by day but I’m getting all this support, I’m getting the energy to push forward. We are just praying and hoping for the best.”
Source: RNZ
Latest News
Opportunities to mitigate multi-million-dollar RNZ budget blowout likely missed – experts
Multiple opportunities to identify and mitigate a multi-million-dollar budget blowout at RNZ appear have been missed, according to the former executive director at Audit New Zealand.
The public broadcaster on Monday revealed a near $12 million shock financial loss after a litany of financial blunders, which will now lead to sweeping job cuts.
The $11.8m loss is more than 25 times the $470,000 RNZ had expected to lose over the year to June.
CEO Paul Thompson took responsibility for the result, and said internal reports gave an inaccurate picture of the finances, meaning the scale of the loss only became clear in October.
RNZ’s former chief financial officer Hilary Parker resigned unexpectedly in early October.
The board said it would commission an independent review into what went wrong.
Independent contractor Stephen Walker, who left the Audit Office earlier this year, said the size of the loss was surprising, as was the length of time it took to identify it – months after the financial year ended.
Supplied / OAG
“Probably more of a concern is that they had seemingly been unaware that they were running up a significant deficit until they were in the preparation stage of their annual report in October.”
Walker said public entities typically produced monthly financial reports.
An interim audit also took place before the end of the financial year, he said, but if the organisation hadn’t identified significant losses at that stage, the auditor could also be in the dark.
“It seems that there’s a real weakness in forecasting and budgeting that’s occurred here and that the monthly accounts, when they’re produced, either haven’t identified these significant variances against budget or the magnitude of them really hasn’t come to light until right towards the end of the financial year,” Walker said.
“And really at that point, there’s no opportunity for the chief executive, the leadership team to take, and the board to take, any corrective action because the year has effectively been completed.”
Walker said the “significant miss” was difficult to account for given it was more than 10 percent of RNZ’s total funding.
He said based on RNZ’s annual report, financial complexity didn’t appear to be a factor.
“This $11.8m loss isn’t made up of one particular item … it seems to have been contributed to by a number of separate expense lines running over budget. So I don’t think it’s necessarily to do with complexity.”
Among the errors, RNZ wrongly counted $2m from land sales as income in its budget. Staff costs also came in $3.2m over budget, including $1.4m in redundancy payments.
Professor at Auckland University’s business school Norman Wong said based on media reports the issues identified were “significant and troubling”.
Supplied / University of Auckland
“But recognising the sale of land as income in their budget is a basic error that one would have expected to have been caught and corrected well before it got to this point.”
With funding reductions at RNZ over the past two years, Walker expected greater scrutiny of financial results.
“Virtually every public entity has had their annual budget reduced. And so you would expect … the leadership team on a monthly basis and board – I’m not sure how frequently the board will consider the information – but you would expect them to be interrogating the results on a regular basis throughout the year,” he said.
Walker said initiating an independent review was the correct course of action and that he’d want to understand what information the leadership team and the board were regularly receiving.
He said he’d “love to say” surprising financial results were rare, but conceded they occured on a semi-frequent basis during his time leading the Audit Office.
“The benefit of independent scrutiny by the Audit Office – and the auditors providing that support to the Auditor General – [is] that the reporting is fairly presented at the end of the year, whether it’s good, bad or ugly.”
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