Deported mother fighting to return
AUCKLAND: A deported South African mother of a New Zealand child is fighting to return after finding out her own mother, who also lives here, has a brain tumour.
Rhonda Arumugam (36) says she does not qualify under any immigration category and is begging the ministers to let her see her family again.
In a letter to Associate Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi, she said: ‘‘Please, I beg of you, allow us to join our family and let me look after my mom and son.’’
Arumugam first came from Durban with her daughter, Willow, then aged 1, in 2003 after her extended family members moved here as skilled migrants.
She met and married New Plymouth man Timothy Edwards that same year and had a son, Cail, in 2004.
But the marriage did not last and the couple separated in 2006. Arumugam fought to remain in New Zealand because she did not want to leave without Cail.
Edwards was sentenced in 2010 at the Hamilton District Court to 11 years’ imprisonment on sex charges, and forfeited his custody rights.
Immigration NZ manager Michael Carley said Arumugam, previously known as Aylward, was deported in August 2011 after her last work visa expired in February that year.
‘‘In a letter dated 2 August 2010 directing INZ to issue sixmonth work and student visas to Aylward and her daughter, the former Associate Minister of Immigration, Kate Wilkinson, stipulated that applications for resident visas needed to be lodged within three months.’’
‘‘No subsequent visa application was made . . . and as a result she became unlawful and was deported.’’
Carley said no further visa applications had been made by her since then.
Aylward remarried and now identifies with Arumugam, which is her new husband’s last name.
Arumugam said she was forced to send Cail back to New Zealand last year to live with her mother after racial attacks in Durban.
Cail, who was born in New Plymouth, is now an air cadet and will turn 14 next month.
‘‘However, my mum’s health has taken a rapid decline. She has an inoperable brain tumour, suspected bowel cancer and fibromyalgia,’’ Arumugam said.
Arumugam now also has a 4yearold son, Cayden, who has never met his extended family.
Arumugam has written to Immigration Minister Iain LeesGalloway and is appealing directly to the associate immigration minister.
She wanted ministerial assurances before putting in a new application.
‘‘I do not want the instability of a visa again, I cannot put my children through that all over again, the risk of losing each other again.’’
‘‘I can never receive another phone call from INZ informing me that if I don’t stop fighting the deportation I will be detained and my children held in [Ministry of Children] care until an available flight.’’
Responding to Arumugam’s appeal, private secretary to the associate minister Patricia Tau told her to be aware the Immigration Act does not require the minister to consider her request or provide any reasons for decisions he makes.