‘I need to be strong for them’
Two girls who only see their deported dad via video calls pray for his return every night. By Hamish McNeilly.
THE hand-drawn picture beside a little girl’s bed shows a happy family under a rainbow.
It’s an idyllic image but far from the reality for Dunedin woman Danelza Eteuati and her two girls RaDesha, aged four, and seven-year-old Meatuai, who only see their father Kosena Eteuati via video calls.
Each night the trio pray for the return of Kosena, 34, who remains in Samoa after being deported in April 2015.
‘‘It is there always,’’ Danelza, 37, his wife of almost 10 years, said. ‘‘It is like this big ugly elephant in the middle of the room.’’
Delays in dealing with Kosena’s case led to Immigration
NZ issuing an apology to the family. But Danelza says that is of little consolation to his daughters, who don’t understand why they can’t see their father.
‘‘They cry for him. They are little people, they don’t get it.’’
Kosena Eteuati was involved in a fight at an Invercargill bar in 2014, and he was later charged with wounding with intent to injure.
He was sentenced to 10 months home detention and forced to surrender his passport.
After serving five months, four weeks and one day of his sentence, his visa was cancelled and he left for Samoa along with a pregnant Danelza and their first daughter Meatuai, in April 2015.
‘‘For us it was more important being together as a family.’’
They embraced the Samoan lifestyle but, after 18 months, poor health and financial constraints forced Danelza to return to New Zealand to seek a better life for their daughters.
‘‘I love the family, and I love the people, but the hardship is too real.’’
A doctor’s note, viewed by the Sunday New, showed Meatuai had respiratory and gastrointestinal infections, while the youngest, RaDesha, had recurrent ear infections and infectious skin conditions, while Danelza developed recurrent skin abscesses, from their time in Samoa.
Their health significantly improved since returning to
New Zealand, the note said.
However, not everything was easier.
RaDesha, who turns five next month, was just 15 months old when she left her father in Samoa, and since then has seen him only once – on a two-week visit this time last year.
‘‘I could cry all the time if I let myself... but I can’t. I need to be strong for them,’’ Danelza said.
She kept her husband’s phone topped up as they talked via
‘I could cry all the time if I let myself... but I can’t. I need to be strong for them. All credit to that man because he has gone out of his way to keep fostering the relationship with his girls.’ DANELZA ETEUATI
video calls, several times a day.
‘‘All credit to that man because he has gone out of his way to keep fostering the relationship with his girls.’’
It has been almost two years since the couple submitted his residency application to Immigration New Zealand (INZ).
The couple first met in January 2010 with Kosena a seasonal worker at a South Otago freezing works.
‘‘We had a natural connection, people thought we were married already.’’
And by July they did.
The couple moved to Southland with Kosena, who had left Samoa on a seasonal work permit, and he would apply each September to remain in New Zealand.
His work included working in a laundromat and on a dairy farm, with the couple making plans to apply for residency in 2014.
After the death of a Samoan friend in a car accident, Kosena went out drinking with some family and friends and was involved in an altercation with a man he didn’t know.
He was charged over the incident, a matter which still riles Danelza, and was given a sentence of 10 months’ home detention.
In hindsight the family are angry he was advised to plead guilty to the charge, and especially that he handed over his passport.
But that plan was now at the mercy of a decision from INZ, with the residence application lodged on July 26, 2018.
In the first three months of this year, 90 per cent of applications for residence as a partner of a New Zealander had been processed within 10 months.
INZ border and visa operations manager Nicola Hogg noted there were ‘‘some complexities’’ in the case, including his deportation, and the department would be requiring some extra information. ‘‘INZ acknowledges that this application has taken longer to process than normal, and we apologise for this.’’
Hogg said the paper-based application was located in the INZ Apia office, which was closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘‘INZ can confirm that this application will be given priority when the Apia office re-opens,’’ she said.
Kosena Eteuaiti told Sunday News he was heartbroken over the time lost with his wife and daughters.
‘‘We long so desperately to be reunited and allowed to heal and grow,’’ he said.
Since settling in Dunedin, Danelza has established a hair art business, taught first aid, and was about to study drug and alcohol counselling.
‘‘It was massively hard. Doing the single mum thing, but not being single. Supporting him as well as myself.’’