A terminally ill man who spent 10 months of his life in Australia, despite not having been there since 1974 when he was a child, faces deportation to the UK.
Robert Taylor, 50, a father of six and grandfather of nine, has not left Western Australia since, but has never become a citizen despite nearly five decades in Australia.
He had a permanent resident visa, but after being convicted of aggravated theft in 2019 and sentenced to three and a half years in prison, it was revoked.
Taylor failed visa character requirements brought in by the previous coalition government, sentencing him to prison for 12 months or more.
In early 2021, a day before he was due to be released on parole, he was detained by immigration in Perth and has been detained ever since.
A terminally ill man who spent 10 months of his life in Australia faces deportation to the UK despite not having been there since 1974 when he was a child.
Robert Taylor’s daughter Kisha (pictured centre) pleads with Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to show some mercy for her father, who faces deportation despite being diagnosed with terminal cancer
While incarcerated and challenging his deportation order, Taylor was diagnosed with lung cancer and told he had 12 months or less to live.
Despite the terminal diagnosis, the Australian government is still determined to send him back to a country he has no memory of.
In an interview with ABC, Taylor said she missed her children, ‘They mean the world to me and I mean the world to them. I miss my whole family outside’.
He apologized for the crime – committed after a work accident he became a methylamphetamine user – which left him facing deportation.
‘I am deeply sorry and sorry for what I have done to the community and the victims and if I could take it back I could not,’ he said.
‘Now I am here. I mean I can’t change the past, I can’t change what I’ve done, but I can change how I behave in the future, you know.’
His daughter Kisha Taylor is pleading with Immigration Minister Andrew Giles to show her father some mercy.
‘He’s there alone doing chemotherapy,’ said Ms Taylor, who lives with her three children and partner in Monjimup, four hours south of Perth.
‘And we can’t go up there and live with him, we can’t get up there because we’re not a very financially stable family. We all work just to get by.
‘If we go there, it’s only for a few hours, and then we have to leave him again.’
Taylor (pictured) apologized for the crime – which he committed after being a methamphetamine user after a work accident – which left him facing deportation.
Taylor’s family is scattered across Western Australia, but none are in Perth, making it difficult to visit.
Taylor said the condition is taking a toll on her mental as well as physical health.
‘I can’t sleep… when I lay down to rest, my brain just ticks over at 100 miles an hour, you know, thinking about whether I’ll ever see my kids again.’
Taylor’s mother Tina (74) said it was ‘barbaric’ and ‘cruel’ to have him deported to the UK with less than a year to live.
Although she herself has cancer and is in poor health, the 74-year-old mother of four, grandmother of 23 and great-grandmother of 37 is more concerned about her son.
‘I can’t think of myself now,’ she said. ‘It’s not fair, your children won’t go before you and I don’t know how I’m going to cope.
‘He’s getting so upset there (because) he’s worried about me, my doctors have written five letters saying it’s causing stress.’
The family is hoping for forgiveness and sympathy, but so far Mr Giles has offered none.
Taylor’s family fears he will die in custody without being deported or released to spend his very limited remaining time with them.
‘What they are doing to him is inhumane,’ said his daughter Kisha. ‘He is a man. They are treating him like nothing.
‘He’s dying and he doesn’t have much time to live. The longer they wait to make this decision, the less time we have so I just, you know, beg for their compassion.
‘Let him out, let him come to our house.’
Immigration Minister Andrew Giles (pictured) has been contacted for comment on Robert Taylor.
The Interior Department said 7,858 visas have been revoked under Section 501 of the immigration law since the law was changed in 2014.
Of these, only 20 percent, or 1,638 appeals, were dismissed.
In 2022, 626 people had their visas revoked, of whom only 22 successfully appealed the decision.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Immigration Minister for comment.
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