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Zee Pathan and her family in January in New Zealand.
This story was originally published on RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.
Hundreds of work visa holders abroad when the border closed say they are desperate to return to their jobs and homes in New Zealand.
They are pressing the government to allow it to return after a period of quarantine.
DHB Administrator Zee Pathan was visiting her sick mother in India and cannot return to New Zealand as a holder of a work visa.
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She has been granted unpaid leave, her husband has lost his job, and his six-year-old daughter and teacher work time zones to manage online learning.
“It is very stressful: to be honest, right now all my expenses in my New Zealand house are ongoing, I am paying the rent, it is a three bedroom house, I am paying the rent of almost $ 430 per week, I have my other utilities, we have our car insurance.
“Even if I try to cancel my rent I have a complete house, what would I do with all my belongings?” she said.
“And I have established that house with much affection. It was our house. My daughter’s life is there, she is missing her school, she keeps asking me ‘when will we be back?’ But I have no answer to give her.”
An Argentine woman, who asked not to be identified, has lived in New Zealand for 12 years, but was on vacation in Bali when the travel ban occurred. She knows of six people in Bali with a work visa for residence and 350 on social networks who are in other parts of the world.
RICKY WILSON / THINGS
Passengers entering New Zealand will face an additional station before immigration where health officials will question them about Covid-19.
“Each case is different, but in a nutshell we left the country for a short period of time with return tickets, of course, and now we are in complete limbo,” he said.
“I have my job waiting for me, my daughter will need to return to school in no time. I am paying the rent in Auckland and I left all my belongings there.”
Immigrants abroad do not receive the wage subsidy and, unless they are allowed an exemption, have not been able to enter the country since travel restrictions were introduced almost six weeks ago.
They include people who are faced with not being allowed to return to the country because they have since been fired.
Some of those affected had a Zoom call with Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway, but Pathan said he could not commit to a course of action while the policy was still being discussed.
Store manager Simran Kaur is out of New Zealand after five years here.
“I have an open work visa valid until May 8, 2020,” he said. “I made a lot of struggle and effort, I really don’t want to lose my job, as it will be a great loss for me and my family.”
“I lost my father when I was only four years old, my mother raised me alone, she spent a lot of money on me to have a better future.”
Brothers Jitender and Navraj Singh had been eligible for residency, but that application and their work visas depend on their jobs.
“We have already received a notice from our employer that we will be terminated if we do not return to NZ by a certain date that is definitely out of our hands,” said Jitender.
“We will both be unemployed [at the] At the same time and our belongings will be discarded. My residency application is with INZ, but what will it mean if the job that is the basis of this application is not there?
“It feels like a nightmare to see everything get out of hand … that you won after all the hard work and that your career came to a complete halt. It’s so depressing that we spent sleepless nights.”
“New Zealand’s borders are closed only to temporary visa holders, which seems a little unfair to me because the virus does not check our visa status that if you have a resident visa then you have [an] infection exemption. Border restrictions and remedies should be the same for everyone. “
In a statement, INZ said it had processed 5,500 requests for exemptions to the border restriction.
“Current government border restrictions mean that people on temporary visas who are currently on the high seas cannot return to New Zealand unless they meet strict border exception criteria.
“Any decision on when to lift border restrictions will be made by the government.
“INZ understands the impact Covid-19 and our visa processing operations are having on visa holders, applicants, employers, and other companies.
“INZ is committed to ensuring that we keep everyone updated with any new information as it becomes available and that decisions are made in the immigration space.”
This story was originally published on RNZ.co.nz and is republished with permission.
RNZ
