Tributes to ‘life-affirming’ woman
A Fijian woman given the right to stay in New Zealand on humanitarian grounds because she was terminally ill died in Timaru on Sunday morning.
In April 2015, Melaia Vakalala became one of only a handful of people allowed to stay in the country after successfully appealing to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal.
During a visit to New Zealand in December 2013 for the funeral of her father, who had been killed in a car accident, Vakalala was diagnosed with metastatic melanoma, an incurable form of cancer.
At the time the visitor visas of Vakalala and her 5-year-old daughter, Asenaca Vakalala Kuruduadua, were only valid until April 2014.
In May 2014 she applied for further visitor visas for the pair but this was declined by Immigration New Zealand, which was not satisfied Vakalala met the necessary health requirements.
Timaru lawyer Jay Lovely helped Vakalala put together an appeal for her and her daughter to stay in New Zealand.
He said the tribunal ruled in their favour on the grounds of the ‘‘exceptional circumstances of a humanitarian nature which would make it unjust or unduly harsh for them to be deported from New Zealand’’.
‘‘If she was to go back they wouldn’t have the facilities to look after her properly. Over here in New Zealand she lived a lot longer than people expected.
‘‘She thought life was for living, even when she was dying.’’
Lovely said Vakalala put her time into helping other people with their immigration issues at the Community Trust in Timaru
He said Vakalala’s body would be returned to Fiji, where her husband, who had never followed her to New Zealand, still lived, for burial.