After 8 years in NZ, family face deportation
Living in a one-bedroom former camping ground cabin in Queenstown are three brothers, their mother and father. There’s not much space but the family’s priorities are clear. On the walls are maps and mathematics charts. Desks and chairs cluttered with books and papers sit in a line under the window. Cricket bats and guitars are piled in between.
The Wijerathne boys, aged 11, 10 and 8, attend Queenstown Primary School, where they are regarded as excellent students. Two made it to the recent finals of the Otago-Southland spelling bee. They were invited to sit Australian academic exams. They are swimmers and cricketers, playing for the Queenstown Club where dad Sam coaches. They go to church every Sunday.
It isn’t an easy life. Their Sri Lankaborn parents have worked long hours as a chef and a taxi driver in one of the most expensive places in the country to support them and their mother has developed health issues. But it is better than the life they left behind eight years ago.
However, that is set to change. The family have been told they have to leave New Zealand on November 21.
The boys’ mother, Dinesha Amarasinghe, tells her story through the tears that flow through her day, every day, since her latest application for a temporary working visa was declined.
Looking for a better life for their children and with Sri Lanka undergoing civil war for 25 years, Dinesha applied to come to New Zealand as a hospitality student in 2010. She had 10 years of industry experience and started working as a cook in Auckland in 2011, under Immigration New Zealand’s skilled migrant category.
Late in 2011, the family moved to Queenstown, where she worked as commis chef at the popular Lone Star restaurant. Based on Dinesha’s visa, Sam was granted an open work permit and worked at New World supermarket, the Hilton and as a taxi driver.
In 2014, Dinseha slipped on the floor while working and was later diagnosed with a lumbar sprain.
Despite the pain in her leg, she continued to work while awaiting treatment but in January 2015, continuing problems forced her onto ACC. In May 2015, she had a brain scan and was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS).
In October this year, because Dinesha was unable to work, her skilled worker temporary visa was declined. Without it, Sam can no longer work and the family have to leave the country by November 21.
Battle with Immigration NZ
The family have an application for residency sitting with Immigration NZ. They applied in April 2013. Their lawyer, Shane Robinson, was not involved with their case then but says that for the application not to be resolved to date is unusual.
Immigration NZ area manager Marcelle Foley said it usually took between 6 and12 months to process a residency application. However, it was not unusual for longer processing times in complex cases ‘‘as is the case in the situation’’.
The processing of their residence visa has now been suspended as they have been unlawful in New Zealand since July, she said
Robinson said a large part of the delay was because Sam overstayed a working visa in Japan in 2006 and was deported. Despite this he was given a visa in New Zealand as a special direction in 2012 but a dispute over the facts was continuing and sits unresolved. However, Dinesha’s health has now taken over as the key issue.
Confusing the family though is the fact that Dinesha was granted a new temporary work visa in 2016, despite her MS diagnosis. Robinson says Immigration NZ’s operational instructions state MS disqualifies someone from getting a temporary work visa but Immigration NZ allowed it in this case partly because it was unclear what degree of her health issues were caused by the 2014 fall and there was the ability to grant a waiver in the case of a residence visa (which was still in progress).
‘‘In hindsight, it may have been fairer on the family for INZ to decline the applications then and not give them false hope.’’
Foley said the organisation was aware in 2016 that Dinesha had MS. However, it was not until this year they became aware she had had a prolonged absence from work and she acknowledged that she would be unable to work in fulltime employment for some time.
Dinesha was advised she was likely to impose significant costs or demands on New Zealand’s health services or special education services, Foley said.
‘‘All non-New Zealanders coming to New Zealand must have an acceptable standard of health so as not to impose undue costs or demands on New Zealand’s public health system,’’ Foley said.
Still, when the family’s application to renew the visa was declined in October, they were taken by surprise and plunged into the desperate situation they are now in. Dinesha cannot work to the extent that is required. Sam can work but was declined for a work visa-partner and doesn’t fit the ‘‘skilled employment’’ category.
Robinson says a request is being made for visas to be granted as a ‘‘special case’’ but the chances of that succeeding are low.
‘‘We have also been instructed to file an appeal on humanitarian grounds...If both of those options fail, then the family’s only hope is intervention by the minister of immigration.’’
The fight to stay
Life is hard in New Zealand but if they return to Sri Lanka they will have no money – it has all been spent on immigration and lawyers.
Dinesha questions why after years of working and paying taxes in New Zealand, the family should be treated this way.
‘‘I came to New Zealand along with my family holding heaps of hopes and ambitions.’’
Robinson says he has received numerous letters and phone calls from people who want to support them. People such as the Salvation Army, Queenstown Primary School and Queenstown Cricket Club president Daniel Gibbons, who writes of the time Sam has given as a coach and player at the club over the seven years they have been involved: ‘‘It would be a great loss to our club and community to lose such a family, so we implore you to reconsider their case’’.
Queenstown Primary School principal Fiona Cavanagh says the school is also doing what it can to support the family, including lobbying on their behalf.