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Boon was diagnosed with Friedreich s Ataxia when he was 17. As the disease progressed it made walking and talking increasingly harder, and also affected his hearing. That’s where my people were: the creatives and the outspoken. But it was the welfare system, in part, that eventually forced me to leave. I worked for as long as I could as an administrator at the Ministry of Health, between 2015 and 2017, before my mental health became too bad to continue. At the time my degenerative neurological condition was progressing. A trusted friend in the disability community visited me a few weeks later and found that I’d been living off savings because I couldn’t face going back to Work and Income.
New Zealand has blocked a teenage girl with Down syndrome from residency because the country believes she will be a burden on the healthcare system.
The 17-year-old Indian citizen, referred to as JB, arrived in New Zealand on a visitor visa with her parents and younger sister in 2016.
The girl s parents and sister were granted residency in 2017 and then permanent residency in 2019.
But JB s application was rejected by Immigration New Zealand because it was deemed she is not of an acceptable standard of health .
Her appeal to the New Zealand Immigration and Protection Tribunal was also unsuccessful.
New Zealand has blocked a teenage girl with down syndrome from residency because they claim she will be a burden on their healthcare system (stock)