Terminally ill father-of-six facing deportation from Australia after 50 years here begs to stay

A terminally ill man who spent nearly 10 months of his life in Australia faces deportation to the UK despite not having been there since 1974 when he was a baby.

Robert Taylor, 50, a father of six and grandfather of nine, has not left Western Australia since, but despite nearly five decades in Australia, he never became a citizen.

He had a permanent resident visa, but after being convicted of aggravated burglary in 2019 and given a three-and-a-half-year prison sentence, it was cancelled.

Taylor failed to meet the visa character requirements set by the previous coalition government after being sentenced to 12 months or more in prison.

At the beginning of 2021, a day before he was due to be released on parole, he was placed in immigration detention in Perth and has been detained ever since.

While being held 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 the ABCTaylor said he missed his kids, “they mean everything to me and I mean everything to them.” I miss my whole family outside.”

He apologized for the crime – committed after becoming a methylamphetamine user following an accident at work – that led to his expulsion.

“I’m very sorry and I’m sorry for what I did to the community and the victims and if I could take it back I would but I can’t,” he said.

‘This is where I am now. I mean, I can’t change the past, I can’t change what I’ve done, but I can change how I act in the future, you know.”

His daughter Keesha Taylor is begging Immigration Secretary Andrew Giles to show some mercy for her father.

“He’s getting chemotherapy there all by himself,” said Ms Taylor, who lives four hours south of Perth in Manjimup with her three children and partner.

“And we can’t go there and be with him, we can’t get there because we’re not a very financially stable family. We all work to make ends meet.

“If we go there, it’s only for a few hours, and then we’ll have to leave him.”

Taylor’s family is scattered across Western Australia, but no one is in Perth, making it difficult to visit.

Taylor said the situation is taking a toll on both his mental and physical health.

“I can’t sleep… when I lay down to rest, my brain just ticks along at 100 miles an hour, you know, thinking about whether I’m going to see my kids again or not.”

Taylor’s mother Tina, 74, said it was “barbaric” and “cruel” to deport him to the UK when he had less than a year to live.

Although she herself has had 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 about myself right now,” she said. “It’s not good, your kids aren’t going before you and I don’t know how to handle it.

“He’s getting so much worse there (because) he’s worried about me. My doctors have written five letters to say about the stress it’s causing me.”

The family hopes for clemency and compassion, but so far Mr Giles has not offered any.

Taylor’s family fears he will die in detention without being deported or released to spend his very limited time remaining with them.

“It’s inhumane what they’re doing to him,” said his daughter Keesha. ‘He’s human. They treat him like nothing.

‘He is dying and he has not long to live. The longer they wait to make this decision, the less time we have, so I beg for their sympathy.

“Let him out, let him come home to us.”

The interior ministry said 7,858 people have had their visas canceled under section 501 of the migration law since the law was amended in 2014.

Of those, only about 20 percent, or 1,638, have appealed.

In 2022, 626 people had their visas cancelled, and only 22 of them have successfully appealed the decision so far.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted the Immigration Minister for comment.