The Australian immigration department has written to a dead British man to tell him he has outstayed his visa. The email – entitled "OVERSTAYER" – arrived on Wednesday in the inbox of the man's grieving husband, who had set up an automatic forwarding system to deal with his partner's correspondences.
David Bulmer-Rizzi died suddenly in an accident while on honeymoon in Adelaide in January. A week later, his husband, Marco Bulmer-Rizzi, travelled back to Britain with David's ashes after informing the authorities in Australia of the death.
"At first I thought it was a joke," Bulmer-Rizzi told BuzzFeed News. "I had to check the reference number [in the email] from when we applied for the visa to make sure it was real."
"...you are now in Australia without a valid visa..." the email said, warning, "It is very important you visit your nearest DIPS [Department of Immigration and Border Protection] office as soon as possible..."
"I'm speechless," said Bulmer-Rizzi. "It's inappropriate, insensitive, and avoidable."
The email follows a catalogue of humiliations for Bulmer-Rizzi, who was told shortly after his husband's death that because South Australia does not recognise overseas same-sex marriages, the death certificate would read "never married" – and because Bulmer-Rizzi was therefore not considered the next of kin, all decisions relating to the death and funeral had to be approved by his father-in-law.
The case sparked an international outcry as the story, revealed by BuzzFeed News, went viral across the globe, prompting Jay Weatherill, the premier of South Australia, to personally intervene, telephoning Bulmer-Rizzi to apologise and promising both a new death certificate and a change of the law this year to recognise foreign gay marriages.
The indignities continued, however, when Bulmer-Rizzi attempted to travel back to Britain. Immigration officials in Hong Kong – where same-sex marriage is also not recognised – stopped him and attempted to confiscate the ashes, as they did not deem Bulmer-Rizzi the next of kin.
But the email from the Australian Department of Immigration and Border Protection was, he said, the final straw and exposes flaws in the already widely criticised Australian immigration system.
"I handed David's passport to immigration when leaving Australia and on my return to the UK because I wanted David to be recorded as being in the UK with me again," he said. "I know for a fact they [UK immigration] swiped his passport at Heathrow because the official said to me, 'Welcome home – both [of you]." Bulmer-Rizzi remembers this, he said, because the brief exchange made him cry. He was carrying David's ashes in order that they could at least be together on the journey home.
However, he said, "Obviously they [the Australian officials] didn't record the fact that I had handed over David's passport when I left Australia. And the South Australia register office that issued me David's interim death certificate should have told immigration. The South Australia government should have some sort of information sharing system with immigration. Or someone at the airport should have said, 'This is what you need to do.'"
Bulmer-Rizzi has written to the office of the South Australia premier to inform it of his predicament, and to ask for its help in the matter. It is not, he said, simply a matter of insensitivity.
"David's visa application is linked together with mine because we applied together, and we share the same surname and address and I don't know how that would play out when I go back to Australia later in the year," he said, adding that most of all what distresses him is the thought of another injustice, of his husband's name erroneously being on a list of illegal immigrants.
He has one final concern regarding the email, an echo of what happened in January when his marriage was not recognised. "I'm terrified they [Australian immigration] are going to ask me to fill out a form asking for my relationship status – who I am in relation to David."
The denial, yet again, of his relationship is too much for him, he said: "They don't realise there's a human side to this. I can't deal with it. I cannot grieve, I can't even try to focus on the fact I've lost David, because I'm bombarded with bullshit, with endless letters, emails – red tape."
Bulmer-Rizzi said he simply wants to be left alone to grieve. And, he said, "I want them to remove David's name from that list. That's it."
UPDATE
Following the publication of this story, a spokesperson from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection told BuzzFeed News:
"Officials from the Department of Immigration and Border Protection have written to Mr Marco Bulmer-Rizzi to apologise for any distress caused by correspondence sent to his late husband. Officials have also offered to discuss the matter personally with Mr Bulmer-Rizzi if he wishes...The Department makes extensive efforts to match its records with facts of death files from state and territory authorities and with its own records on repatriated bodies. The Department will examine the circumstances of this case in an effort to identify ways to further improve its processes. The Department sincerely regrets any distress caused to the family and loved ones of Mr Bulmer-Rizzi."