Sanjeev Kumar has until Friday to make his travel arrangements to India, after which he could be deported from Australia. Mr Kumar’s appeal for ministerial intervention was turned down last month and the Assistant Immigration minister determined it would not be in "public interest" to intervene in his case.
Mr Kumar has a two and a half-year-old daughter with his now-separated partner, who is living in Adelaide. He fears he will never be able to his daughter again if he is forced to return to India.
“I have made some mistakes in life which, looking back I understand, I shouldn’t have. But separating me from my daughter who is my own flesh and blood, will be unjust,” says Mr Kumar.
Mr Kumar faces a three-year ban on applying for an Australian visa because of irregularity in the documentation at the time of applying for an earlier visa.
"After my student visa ran out and I started a relationship [with my partner], I applied for 2-3 different visas. There must have been something wrong a document at that time," he told SBS Punjabi. Mr Kumar has also incurred a $13,000 in Commonwealth debt while fighting court cases against the Immigration Department.
“My circumstances are very clear to them [Immigration]. Though they say I can apply for a visa after three years, I know if I leave now, I will never be able to come back here and see my daughter.”
An electronics and communication engineer, Mr Kumar came to Australia in 2008 as a student and ran into trouble with his visa. He then started a relationship with a single mother. When his partner was pregnant in 2015, Mr Kumar applied for ministerial intervention, asking to be allowed to remain in Australia citing family ties.
The application for intervention was accepted, but Mr Kumar says with no work rights and the constant pressure of supplying document after document in addition to visiting the Immigration office with his daughter every week caused his relationship to collapse, leaving him homeless and without any family support.
Sanjeev Kumar Source: Supplied
Mr Kumar did not have a legal authority to see his daughter. He believes this weighed in on the Immigration decision.
Later, the court allowed him to visit his daughter once a week.
Mr Kumar hasn’t yet booked his ticket to India and fears he may be taken into immigration detention for deportation. But he is hoping for a last-minute reprieve as an started by Adelaide Day Centre is calling on Minister for Home Affairs, Peter Dutton, to grant Mr Kumar permanent residency.
The general manager of ADC, Joyce van derSman said Mr Kumar deserves to stay with his daughter in Australia.
"He is an enormous asset to the country. When I first met him, I became aware of his gifts, his wisdom and the outstanding ability to contribute to the society which have been enhanced by the adversity he faced in this country," she told SBS Punjabi.
A spokesperson for the Department of Home Affairs said Mr Kumar is expected to depart Australia as his case had already been comprehensively assessed.
“Assistant Minister [For Immigration and Border Protection] cannot be compelled to exercise his powers and he is not required to explain his decisions on any case," a department spokesperson told SBS Punjabi. "What is or is not in the public interest is entirely a matter for the Assistant Minister considering each case on its own merits."
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