Pleas for NZ visa to help Gazans

The Government is being urged to create a special humanitarian visa for Palestinians in Gaza with ties to New Zealand.

More than 30 organisations — including World Vision, Save the Children and Greenpeace — have sent an open letter to ministers, calling on them to step up support. They also want the Government to help evacuate Palestinians with ties to New Zealand from Gaza, and provide them with resettlement assistance.

Their appeal is backed by Palestinian New Zealander Muhammad Dahlen, whose family is living in fear in Rafah after being forced to move there from northern Gaza.

His ex-wife and two children (who have had visitor visas since December) were now living in a garage with his mother, sisters and nieces, who don’t have visas. “There is no food, there is no power . . . it is a really hard situation to be living in,” he told Morning Report.

If his family could receive visas to come to New Zealand “it literally can be the difference between life and death”.

With Israel making it clear it still intended to send ground forces into Rafah, “everyone is susceptible to death and at least we would be saving some lives”. He appealed to Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters to intervene and approach the Egyptian Government.

At the border, potential refugees needed to gain permission of officials from both Israel and Egypt. Egypt had concerns about taking in too many refugees from Gaza so New Zealand would need to provide assurances flights had been organised.

World Vision spokeswoman Rebekah Armstrong said the Government had responded in other humanitarian emergencies. “We provided humanitarian visas for Ukrainians when their lives were torn apart by war, and we assisted Afghans to leave and resettle in this country when the Taliban returned to power. The situation for vulnerable Palestinians is no different.”

Stanford said the Government was monitoring the situation in Gaza.

“The issue in Gaza is primarily a humanitarian and border issue, not a visa issue, as people are unable to leave. People who have relatives in Gaza can already apply for temporary or visitor’s visas for them.”