Australia bars blind girl

Press, 23 February 1978, Page 9

Australia bars blind girl

NZPA London! IS The mother of a 12-year-jt old blind girl has accused the it Australian Government of 11 “blatant discrimination” I ( after the family was refused I j permission to settle in Aus-1 tralia because of the child’s!J blindness. i t As a result of the immigra- 1 1 tion ban the family’s mem-H ber of Parliament, Mr Jim; Lester, is to ask the Office to change the rules for j x Australian immigration to'< Britain in retaliation for the 1

The Dobbs family, of Stapleford. Nottingham, lost their two-year fight to move to Australia when the Australian Immigration Minister (Mr Michael MacKell r) rejected their application. j James Dobbs and his wife, Margaret, wanted to take their four children to join their eldest son in Perth, Western Australia. They first applied to migrate in December, 1975, but were refused permission because their daughter had been blind since birth. Mr MacKellar, who had

considered an appeal against the ban, said he could not approve their application because of the long-term cost of providing the girl with an Australian blind invalid pension. “I have concluded that there are insufficient grounds to justify over-ruling the medical objections.” he said. He said there w’as no hardship involved because the Dobbs family was well established with a house and employment in Britain. He added that what might . seem a harsh decision should'

be seen in the context of! hundreds, even thousands, of I similar applications. In Nottinghamshire, Mrs; Dobbs, who is a nurse, said: “The decision is blatant discrimination against my daughter. “Catherine is partially sighted but she has no other disability; otherwise she is a normal, healthy child. We are very distressed at the decision because we wanted to settle in Australia where our eldest son, Stephen, is already living. We all wanted to be together.”