Kia Ora, Week 3: Families torn apart by Family Reunification policy

He was granted residence and then citizenship in New Zealand. A prize case of escaping desperate life threatening circumstances, fleeing from Somalia to eastern Ethiopia, and eventually making it to NZ through immigration policy. Two of his brothers went missing and are presumed dead. The four nieces all went missing and are presumed to have been sold into sex slavery or dead. His one remaining brother was watching over three of his nephews. Last week his phone rang. The caller told him that his brother was now dead. These three nephews, aged 8-10 are somewhere in Addis Ababa. He wants to bring them to New Zealand to safety. But in terms of NZ immigration policy, they're not a "family" so that won't be so easy. Also, he came to NZ under the wrong policy if he wanted any chance of bringing his family over with him.

This week I have felt especially touched by our clients that I have met but realized there will not be a way within New Zealand immigration policy to help them. I knew that it would come to this in certain, maybe many, cases, and it is sometimes simple to think about immigration policy as this abstract concept that in the United States becomes an issue of politics and in New Zealand becomes an issue for the Minister of Immigration, Hon. Jonathan Coleman, and Immigration New Zealand ("INZ") having basically free reign from Parliament to do what they wish with policy.

There were previously two ways to come to NZ as a refugee:

1) UNHCR Quota

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees ("UNHCR") advises New Zealand on the countries from which NZ should accept the most refugees. The Minister and INZ have set the quota at 750 refugees to be accepted annually, and they pick and choose which countries they want to prioritize: http://www.refugeeservices.org.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0019/955/Nationalities_to_2008

See the link above for a breakdown of these priority countries.

Refugees who entered NZ under the quota are eligible to sponsor their family members left behind to make it to NZ under a special family reunification residence policy.

2) INZ Humanitarian Policy

This is the policy the client I discussed early used. Prior to October 2001, New Zealand had a "Humanitarian Category" under their Residence policy where they basically accepted more people where "severe humanitarian conditions exist" and the individual had a close family connection to New Zealand. Many people came to New Zealand under the benefits of this policy. At the time, refugees who entered NZ under the Humanitarian policy were eligible to sponsor their family members left behind to make it to NZ under a separate family reunification residence policy. In October 2001, the Humanitarian option of entry was eliminated. Unless the person managed to get a spot in the quota of 750, there is no place for her in New Zealand. This also meant that there was no family reunification option if a refugee entered under the Humanitarian policy.

Refugees fear for their lives, their safety, their health, their most basic needs, their families. They are desperate for help, and it is a beautiful thing that New Zealand, by the urging of the UNHCR, accepts refugees. A desperate person in this situation is not thinking about picking and choosing which policy they apply to officially enter the country under, but through their current policy this is essentially what New Zealand says these people should have been doing.

If you entered under policy one, you have a chance at living together as family again. If you entered under policy two, your family will be never be together again.

Try explaining that to your client. Or, actually, think about how it would feel to be that client.