Marilyn Rodrigues – Asylum seeker Sereneu (Simon) Pereira hated to tell his "friends and mothers" at St Anne's Nursing Home, Hunters Hill, that he faces having to leave them and go back to East Timor.

"They are all upset," he said. "I'm here every day, I work here five days a week but sometimes I'm here for seven. They are my friends, many of the women here are [religious] sisters but the ones who aren't I call them my mothers."

Sereneu was 19 when he came to Australia 11 years ago, and has worked as a carer at the nursing home for six years. He is one of five employees who came as refugees from East Timor, and three of them are now permanent residents.

Maureen Scott, the director of residential care, can't understand why Sereneu has been denied residency. "He is a very valued staff member and he has established great relationships with all the staff and the residents," she said.

"For some of our residents he is the only person who can get them to do things, he has such a rapport with them. It is absolutely terrible, it will be a big loss to St Anne's."

Sereneu has no plans. "If I go back I will leave many friends behind," he says. "I will have to start from zero again. I have no place to go."