12 Jun 2017

Family lose bid to keep disabled daughter in NZ

3:32 pm on 12 June 2017

A South African family's legal battle to stay in New Zealand with their blind, disabled child has ended with the High Court upholding Immigration New Zealand's decision to deport the 5-year-old girl.

Caitlyn Davies suffers from global development delay, blindness and other chronic medical conditions.

Immigration New Zealand said those conditions would make her a burden on New Zealand's health system.

Caitlyn's father, Jonathan Davies moved to New Zealand from South Africa in 2015 on a one-year-work visa and a few months later the rest of the family followed him.

As the partner and dependent children of a worker they were granted work and visitor visas.

The visas were extended in 2016 but the immigration authorities refused to grant Caitlyn a visitor visa because of her health.

The family appealed against the Immigration Tribunal's decision but the High Court has upheld the ruling.