[ad_1]
Ricky Wilson / Stuff
First Security staff outside the Rydges Hotel, which is used as a quarantine and managed isolation facility.
This story was originally posted on RNZ.co.nz and is being republished with permission.
One-third of all managed isolation spaces have been vacant since July, with an average of more than 2,000 vacancies per day.
Last week there were more than 2,600 vacancies out of the 7,263 isolation places managed.
Vacancies peaked at more than 4,000 at the end of July, even after taking into account a 24-hour suspension for deep cleaning of rooms every fortnight.
Radio Tarana
Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi speaks with Radio Tarana’s Sanjesh Narain about visa extension priorities during Covid-19.
READ MORE:
* ‘Unfair’ prioritization leaves anxious migrants facing long delays
* Kiwis abroad: ‘We are forgotten until the elections’
* Coronavirus: How the Government Failed Border Testing for Covid-19
* Coronavirus: 60% of administered isolation staff were not evaluated until last week
* The Detail: Trapped Migrant Workers: New Zealand’s New Lower Class
The MIQ said that about half of the empty capacity had been reserved for operational reasons and a cushion in the event a facility was evacuated.
Those hoping to be allowed into the country say managed isolation and quarantine capacity (MIQ) was highlighted as the main reason for the border restrictions.
It is not clear how much the taxpayer pays for each vacancy. A person’s 14-day stay at an MIQ facility costs an average of $ 6,472, excluding GST, although part of that cost is for food and transportation.
Immigration consultant Katy Armstrong said the vacancy numbers – 2,138 on average every day since July – had put a hole in her soul as she faced sobbing clients whose border waivers had been rejected.
RNZ
Henco de Beer, his wife Maryke de Beer and their daughter Emmabella.
Every unused room represented a tragedy for families trying to join loved ones here or return home, he said.
“It’s really tragic, because now we have a family going through incredibly difficult circumstances and with each passing week it becomes more and more marked.”
The emotional toll
Henco de Beer saw his son Zion for the last time in January, when he was four days old.
He flew in to take a job as a production team leader in Hamilton, and his family, his wife Maryke, their five-year-old daughter Emmabella and Sion, are trapped in South Africa.
They were supposed to fly hours before the border closed in March.
De Beer said the number of unused MIQ locations was difficult to take, as his family’s border waiver applications had been rejected a dozen times.
“It’s extremely disappointing to watch,” he said.
“We can understand that they need to prioritize New Zealanders and residents, what they have done. And there is still room. So at least with the divided families, try to bring them together first and then remove them.
“We are literally begging for immigration, just look closely at the big picture.”
The whole family had visas and all his belongings, including the children’s beds and toys, had been shipped in a container, as they were to be reunited with him two months later.
“My daughter and I are very close and she is taking it very badly.
“And on top of that, I said you can really say zero bonding time with my son.
“I mean, now he crawls up, stands up and starts saying a few words; I’ve wasted all that time with my wife watching our son develop together.
“We’ve given up everything and now it’s taking such an emotional toll on us that you have to start making decisions. You can’t keep your family apart forever.
Room at the inn?
In a statement, an MIQ spokesperson said that a capacity of approximately 1,100 people is currently assigned to specific functions such as quarantine, resident personnel, maritime (commercial), maritime (small craft), deportees and aircrew.
“Additional capacity for contingency planning is also required in the unlikely event that a managed isolation facility requires evacuation or a natural disaster occurs.”
“Ensuring the safety of all New Zealanders during this global pandemic is critical and it is necessary to be able to safely transfer these returnees to new facilities with additional capacity.”
Armstrong said he accepted that MIQ facilities should have contingencies, but the figures showed that border restrictions could, and can, be eased more quickly than they had.
“Even if you give it a big latitude and it says that maybe we have to have 1500 voids, that’s an acceptable margin, that means every fortnight there were probably 600 or 700 people who could have come to help mitigate this terrible, terrible crisis humanitarian.
“Each bed counts, each bed represents the life of someone who is currently being destroyed.”
This story was originally posted on RNZ.co.nz and is being republished with permission.
