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A woman struggling to return to New Zealand to see her terminally ill mother is welcoming a change of government that will make things easier for people in her position.
However, it may be too late for her to say goodbye to her mother, she says.
The criteria for people making emergency requests for a place in managed isolation have been expanded to a new tier system, the government announced Friday, allowing a better opportunity for those with dying relatives to enter.
DAVINA STONEX / Supplied
Davina Stonex, second from left, pictured with her mother Vivian, second from right, and the rest of her family.
While New Zealand citizens with serious health problems will continue to have priority in “category one”, the new system introduces “category two”, which allows people to apply for an emergency allowance based on a series of new criteria.
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Citizens or residents visiting a close relative who is dying, those who cannot legally remain in their current location, persons who are needed for a time-critical health or public service or national security interest, and care Critic of a dependent person in New Zealand is included in the new category.
RICKY WILSON / THINGS
Changes to the MIQ emergency applications allow more circumstances to be taken into account. (File photo)
Davina Stonex moved to Los Angeles about five years ago and is struggling to return to the country.
He has faced multiple denials for an emergency exemption to see his mother, from Panmure in Auckland, who was diagnosed with terminal gallbladder cancer in October.
The family has been told that they may only have a few weeks left.
“I’m desperate. [It] It feels bad to beg someone to let me enter a country where I was born, ”he said.
Going through the process has been frustrating and emotionally draining, she said, especially when time is of the essence.
DAVINA STONEX / Supplied
Stonex worries that by the time he gets to New Zealand it will be too late.
Her mother, Vivian Stonex, has started her first round of chemotherapy, but due to an infection she is still considered high risk.
Stonex has managed to book a flight and find accommodation for the end of December, but worries that by then, plus the two weeks of isolation, it will be too late.
“I read the other day about a couple who returned to the country and were in controlled isolation when their relative died.
“I started to cry. I thought, ‘That can’t be me.’
She said it is good that the government has made some changes and that she will run, but that it may have come too late for her.
The Deputy Executive Director for Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Megan Main, said that the emergency allocation process is a last resort option and that the threshold is extremely high.
“To be eligible for an emergency assignment, travel must be time-critical, the applicant must have the legal right to enter New Zealand and must be willing to travel within seven days to make your request “.
Main said he is confident that about 150 rooms can be made available every fortnight for those who need to travel urgently.
Since November 3, when the Managed Isolation Assignment System (MIAS) was introduced, between five and eight rooms at MIQ facilities have not been used per day as a result of people having a flight but not having a coupon or They have reserved several coupons.
JASON DORDAY / Things
150 rooms are expected to be available every fortnight for new emergency applications to enter managed isolation facilities. (File photo)
Between seven and eight rooms are left unused each day after being assigned to a person who had a flight and a coupon but did not arrive in New Zealand.
Main said decisions about who to let in are not easy to make as there must be a balance between individual applications and the safety of New Zealanders.
Despite the new criteria, there is no guarantee that people who fit them will receive an emergency allowance, as it depends on the number of rooms available at the time, he said.
Places at MIQ facilities have been hard to come by, with reservations through December 20, just two days after the new reservation system was announced.
Ryan Anderson / Stuff
Between 12 and 16 rooms have not been used per day since the allocation system was introduced on November 3. (File photo)
The complete criteria
Category one
- Citizens or residents of New Zealand where there is a serious risk to the health of the applicant or their dependents, requiring an urgent trip to New Zealand; OR
- When urgent travel is required to ensure that a child receives adequate care and protection.
Category two
- Citizens or residents of New Zealand who must provide critical care to a dependent person in New Zealand and need to travel urgently to do so; OR
- A person whose entry to New Zealand is time-critical for the purpose of providing a critical health or public service, such as the provision of specialized health services necessary to prevent serious illness, injury or death; o the maintenance of essential infrastructure the failure of which would cause significant damage or disruption to large numbers of New Zealanders; OR
- Citizens or residents of New Zealand, who cannot legally remain in their current location and have no choice but to return to New Zealand; OR
- New Zealanders and non-New Zealanders, when urgent travel to New Zealand is required for reasons of national security, national interest or law enforcement; OR
- New Zealand citizens or residents entering New Zealand to visit a close family member who is dying, where it is unlikely that it will be possible to travel on time if the person books through the Managed Seclusion Allowance System.
