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Some government decisions about who can come to New Zealand during the Covid-19 pandemic are a sad and sick joke, says Ankur Sabharwal, a licensed immigration consultant.
OPINION: What a sad and sick joke it has become that foreigners watching the America’s Cup can be approved for entry as ‘critical workers’ during the Covid-19 pandemic while rejecting actual critical workers.
Things has revealed that more than 1000 people from abroad have been invited as ‘critical workers’ associated with the event, including representatives from more than 200 sponsors and equipment suppliers.
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Foreigners who watch the America’s Cup can be approved as ‘critical workers’ during the Covid-19 pandemic, while actual critical workers are denied.
Immigration New Zealand (INZ) explains that these non-workers are being approved as ‘critical workers’ because they conform to the rules that INZ must follow.
This makes no sense. The rules say that an ‘other critical worker’ can be someone who is assuming a critical role over time at a government-approved event; the America’s Cup is listed as a government approved event.
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The rules also say: ‘For the avoidance of doubt, America’s Cup union co-owners may be considered other critical workers’ as defined above.
How was that rule extended to representatives of the team’s sponsors and suppliers?
INZ is talking nonsense
INZ is talking nonsense when it says it “has no discretion” on how to evaluate applications. Legally it does.
How could INZ rate Australian children’s music group The Wiggles for having ‘unique experience and technical or specialized skills that cannot be easily obtained in New Zealand’ (the rules they had to meet in order to be approved for entry as’ other critical workers’)?
Meanwhile, people with abilities that are actually unique and cannot be easily obtained are denied entry because INZ decides that they do not abide by this rule.
These include a first aid expert at mass casualty events like terrorist attacks coming to train the New Zealand Defense Forces, and a horticultural expert for a large New Zealand plant company with greenhouses three times the size of the Wellington stadium.
I myself processed a ‘critical worker’ application for a worker who wanted to come to New Zealand to maintain unique equipment that prevents asbestos dust from being released into the atmosphere. Evidence was provided showing that no New Zealander with knowledge of this filtration equipment was available to do the job, but INZ rejected the request, saying there were many asbestos removal companies here that could handle it.
Will INZ take any responsibility if this asbestos filtration equipment fails due to lack of maintenance? I doubt it.
The suffering of our critical workers
There is an equally scandalous situation for critical worker families in New Zealand who were unlucky enough to be out of the country when the border was closed in March 2020.
Now, 12 months later, some doctors and nurses who protect our health during the pandemic are still separated from their families abroad who do not meet the government’s criteria for a border exemption.
If it is okay for the government to relax its border exemption rules to allow entry for 98 percent of the people applying to ‘work’ in the America’s Cup, why can’t it do the same to allow a few hundred relatives of critical people? healthcare workers to join them here?
National Congresswoman Erica Stanford asked a series of specific questions on this issue in Parliament last week.
If we value the work that healthcare workers are doing in New Zealand and want them to stay here at a time of critical shortages, Stanford cited 2000 healthcare workers most needed to administer Covid-19 vaccines, why not do we allow their spouses and children to join them?
Frontline health workers, who may be risking their lives doing their jobs during a pandemic, need and deserve the support of their immediate families. However, the government has done nothing to allow their family members to join them, despite learning about the problem for the past year.
The government must act
The Immigration Minister has acknowledged the problem, but so far has done nothing to fix it.
Given the contribution that frontline healthcare workers are making, the Minister should approve residency for them and their families, rather than worrying about how many managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) places their families could occupy if allows them entry.
After all, if the government can find places at MIQ for America’s Cup and The Wiggles viewers, surely it can find them for the spouses and children of our critical workers?
The whole border waiver mess reeks of favoritism and injustice, IMHO.
Ankur Sabharwal is the owner of Immigration Counseling Visa Matters. He is a licensed immigration consultant who deals with complex immigration matters. His previous article explained why ‘search and fly’ is the hottest thing in immigration right now.
Disclaimer: This article does not constitute immigration advice. Individuals should seek personal advice from a licensed immigration advisor or attorney to assess their particular situation.
