Our father, Mr. Dimitrios Mazarakis, moved to Australia in 2006 when we applied for a balance of family aged parent visa for him as his only immediate family and only children. At the time the visa application was lodged, he had no signs of dementia. In 2010, following a stroke, our father was diagnosed with dementia for the first time. He has lived with us since the application was lodged in 2006. He was up until 2010 at the time he was diagnosed with dementia, an independent man, walking up to 1 kilometer every day. In February 2013, our father was contacted by Immigration to undertake another health assessment. At the time he had been prescribed a medication called Risperidone, to which he had an adverse reaction in that it exacerbated his dementia symptoms and resulted in falls. At the time this health assessment was undertaken as requested by Immigration, our father was still on this medication as we had no way of knowing that this medication was causing an adverse reaction. Needless to say, the health assessment at the time portrayed our father in a very bad light. He was hospitalised following this health assessment due to a significant fall and it was then identified that the medication Risperidone had exacerbated his dementia and resulted in his falls. The medication was ceased immediately and our father's condition improved back to his baseline status.He was discharged back into his usual home setting with us, having been waitlisted for aged care placement as requested by social workers at the hospital. Between March - August 2013, we received two notifications from Facility Managers at two aged care facilities that they could not and would not accept him for respite or permanent aged care placement due to his status of Non-Australian Resident. I contested this, to no avail. In August 2013, we received notification from Immigration verbally that our father's application for permanent residency was going to be denied due to his diagnosis of dementia. Immigration requested further medical documentation to substantiate his visa application. I resubmitted medical applications, including a letter from his GP outlining the fact that he has been managed at home for the last 8 years and despite his diagnosis of dementia, he was stable and after admission to hospital his condition improved to his baseline condition and that at the time of health assessment in February, he was being medicated with Risperidone which he reacted to and this resulted in an exacerbation of his dementia symptoms. Additionally, he stated that his symptoms and falls had resolved following cessation of the medication. This had no impact on Immigration reviewing the case as two weeks later I received verbal notification that the visa was going to be denied. We discussed the options available and notified Immigration by email that we would be pursuing a Tribunal Review, but in order to undertake this the formal letter of visa denial is required to initiate the process. I received no formal letter of denial until the 25th of November. During this time, I commenced writing a letter to the Minister of Immigration to investigate and provide assistance in this regard. I received no response despite having emailed him directly and forwarding letters by registered mail to his electoral office and office in Canberra. After a further 2 week period I emailed a copy of the letter that I sent to the Minister to the Department of Immigration to notify them of actions taken. I then was requested to submit all his medical evidence within 24 hours. I complied with this forwarding all relevant medical information from the last 8 years and outlined in a detailed letter all his medical history. I contacted Immigration on Monday the 25th November, only to be told that the information was not going to be forwarded to the medical practitioner handling the case and there was no point in reviewing the documentation provided, and that the visa was going to be denied regardless of all the documentation I submitted. I received the electronic copy of the visa denial on Monday night the 25th November 2013. The current situation as it stands is that the Immigration has left us hanging for all this time, he is being denied a permanent residency visa and he is unable to apply for aged care as he is a non-Australian Resident.

We desperately need some assistance by obtaining as many people as we can to sign this petition on our behalf. We urgently require the Minister of Immigration to overturn this visa decision as our father is unable to leave the country as Immigration would like, and he is not in a position to look after himself in another country and that is assuming that Greece, Turkey or South Africa would have him back as he is not a Turkish resident, he is not a South African citizen and has not lived in Greece for three-quarters of his life when he left at the age of 11!

We are his only immediate family in a position to care for him and would like his grandchildren to see him as much as possible...help us overturn this visa decision!