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When immigration officers arrived at Sukhwinder Singh’s home in Manukau on October 23, they were told that he was not there. It was not true. Agents found the 63-year-old Indian who was staying at home hiding in a drawer under his bed.
Singh and his son Parminder claimed refugee status, an effort to prevent them from being deported.
His attempt to hide from the officers was one of the reasons why New Zealand Immigration presented a District Court judge for holding both men in Mt Eden prison.
The judge agreed, and the couple were detained on a 28-day engagement order, which was renewed Wednesday for another month. Both men will remain behind bars until at least December 9, and possibly longer. The arrest warrant is a rarely used tool that can be used to detain deportees without charge and prevent them from escaping.
The Singhs’ immigration adviser, Tuariki Delamere, says it could take up to four years to resolve their refugee claim. They could spend all that time behind bars even though they are not a threat to the public, Delamare says.
Sukhwinder has not had a valid visa since 2012, and Parminder since 2015. Both were supposed to be deported and had signed waivers saying they would not apply for asylum (they say they were misled), when they made their last minute asylum application on the basis of that the mismanagement of Covid-19 in India put them at risk of death if they were repatriated.
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DILEEPA FONSEKA / THINGS
Immigration advisor Tuariki Delamere represents two Indians who remain in the country and who have been detained indefinitely after applying for refugee status.
Delamere believes that at that point, his case changed. “They were people who stayed too long, so they had to be deported,” he says. “But once they claimed refugee status, they entered a different realm.
“The process could take a year or two, or more, and they are not a threat to New Zealand’s security, so in my opinion they should be released. It is unethical to keep them in prison and by doing so the government is sending a message, intentional or not, that if you apply for refugee status, you will be incarcerated. “
Delamere argued that because India’s borders are closed and a refugee claim can take years, it would be unfair and immoral to keep the Singhs behind bars.
Parminder Singh married a New Zealand citizen in 2016. Speaking on condition of anonymity, she said she was “in complete trouble without him.”
“What can I do? I have no money, I have no options, I have no hope. I don’t know what else to do.”
He had not been able to visit them in jail and had only seen them across a courtroom on Wednesday. She sent an email to government ministers Kris Faafoi and Phil Twyford, asking them to intervene, but said she had lost all faith in the judicial system.
“I just believe that it is unnecessary and that it causes unnecessary pain and suffering for both me and them,” he said. “There is no possibility of them escaping. Where would they go? I no longer have faith in the system … I can’t imagine they would be kept in jail for a year or two, or as long as it takes. “
He said members of the Punjabi community had offered to house the couple and report their whereabouts to authorities.
“You can bail someone who sold drugs or broke into someone’s home and leave them in the community, and apparently my family is a risk … How much is it going to cost the taxpayer to keep them there, when there are people ? willing to help them? “
Lawrence Smith / Stuff
The men are being held at Mt Eden Prison.
Under the 2009 Immigration Act, there is a provision for Immigration NZ to apply to the District Court for an arrest warrant for up to 28 days when “there will not be, or it is unlikely there will be, a ship available to carry the person from New Zealand ”or“ for any other reason, the person cannot leave New Zealand ”.
In 2017, the District Court rejected a request for an arrest warrant for an Afghan man who had applied for refugee status for the third time when he was due to be deported. The High Court overturned the decision, but allowed the man to remain free because he had behaved well and a decision on his condition was imminent.
RNZ
The first group of refugees to arrive in the country since the border was closed has already completed controlled isolation.
Parminder Singh came to New Zealand in 2008 on a visitor visa, then had a student visa and a series of work visas before the last one expired in 2012. Despite being in a relationship since 2014, he never applied for another.
He was told by Immigration NZ in 2015 that he was staying too long, but it appears that he did not follow up until September of this year, when he was offered “Residency and Reporting,” a kind of supervised bond, while his case was being resolved. He refused, saying that he would leave the country voluntarily, but did not.
His father, Sukhwinder, arrived in 2002, also on a visitor visa, and had a variety of visas before his asylum applications were denied in 2014 and again in 2015, when he received a notice of deportation responsibility. Once again, Immigration NZ appears not to have continued until October 12, when at 7:11 a.m. four immigration officers arrived at his door in Goodwood Heights, Manukau, an address where Sukhwinder had apparently searched his car.
Parminder opened the door, but Sukhwinder was only found under the bed after immigration officer Daniel Passingham searched the home.
The department’s court filings said the Singhs were at risk of flight, given that Sukhwinder had gone into hiding, both had not sought legal visas in the past five years and only submitted their asylum applications after being arrested and detained for deportation.
Immigration NZ said Things that it would be “to review the detention of Parminder and Sukhwinder Singh on an ongoing basis, taking into account all the circumstances relevant to their cases, including any new information that may become available during the validity period of their incarceration orders.”
Detaining asylum seekers “may be appropriate … in certain circumstances” and both New Zealand law and United Nations guidelines allow it, the department said.
The arrest depended on factors including “security considerations and his immigration, travel and employment history.”
