Deported mum fights to return

A deported South African mother of a New Zealand child is fighting to return after finding out her 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 says: “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 didn’t last, with the couple separating in 2006.

Immigration NZ manager Michael Carley said Arumugam, previously known as Aylward, was deported in August 2011 after her last work visa expired.

Aylward is now remarried and now identifies with Arumugam, her husband’s last name. Arumugam has written to Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway and is appealing directly to him.