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Dr Deborah Mills pictured at Brisbane airport earlier this month, minutes before she was told that she will not be allowed to return to New Zealand for Christmas.
An Otago-based Australian doctor who flies frequently through the Tasman has missed Christmas with her husband after he was denied entry to his flight.
Dr. Deborah Mills, known as Dr. Deb, had just said goodbye to her daughter at Brisbane International Airport on December 1 and went to check in before being told that she did not meet the criteria to return to New Zealand.
Dr. Mills said that after she and her husband James Stewart first came across the ditch in late 2012, they both immediately fell in love with New Zealand.
By March 2014 they had purchased a home in Careys Bay, Dunedin, and had moved in in December.
However, his travel medicine business was in Australia and with Covid-19 he was starting to liquidate it due to lack of travel.
“I am a travel medicine doctor, I give people vaccinations when they go abroad to places like Africa and South America and I am a specialist in infectious diseases, such as dengue. [fever] and malaria.
“I go back to work for a few weeks and go back to New Zealand. There are no travel medicine opportunities in New Zealand, certainly in the area we’re in … so that’s why I go back and forth.”
He thought he had arranged everything he had to do for his return trip to Dunedin when he was surprised when the airline staff told him he would not board.
“I couldn’t believe it, like ‘is this really happening?’
“I was incredibly stressed. I was like ‘Oh my God, can’t you be serious?'”
He ended up being able to speak to an immigration spokesperson by phone, who told him he was basing his decision on Mills’ travel history.
“I told her ‘well I’m a flight worker, my travel history is not the full story, I have everything here, I’ve brought it to show you’ and she said she can’t look and now she’ll have to hang up.”
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Knowing the likelihood of being questioned, she had her rate information, driver’s license, and bank statements in case the immigration officer wanted proof that she had lived in New Zealand.
On its website, Immigration NZ said it would base its decision on completion of testing, but Dr. Mills was annoyed that she was told they were basing their decision simply on her travel history.
“She was basing her decision on flight history and the [Immigration website] She says we’ll look at her flight history and other things, but she didn’t look at anything else, she just looked at my flight history. “
Dr Mills’ argument proved fruitless and she was turned away from the airport and remained in Brisbane.
“I was there for the entire quarantine, we got the message from Jacinda and looked [Covid updates] every day and I feel like this is so unfair, my home is there.
“[Husband is] there alone and we are devastated, absolutely devastated. “
His daughters also lived in Australia but had made plans in other parts of the country for Christmas.
Fortunately, Mills can spend Christmas with his mother, who lives in Brisbane.
Mills said she was speaking to highlight the issue as she believed she would not have been the first to go through this experience.
She said that instead of making screening optional and leaving an unknown amount of uncertainty for travelers, Immigration NZ should make it mandatory.
Fortunately, he had taken a risk last week and signed up for Managed Isolation for February in hopes of finally gaining approval.
That approval came the same day the Herald inquired on Mills’ behalf this week.
An INZ spokesperson confirmed that Mills was denied boarding on her flight because INZ “was not satisfied that she met the requirements to be considered a regular resident of New Zealand.”
“This was based on his previous trips and that he spends more time in Australia than New Zealand.”
Dr. Mills’ subsequent visa application for a border exception was granted.
However, as Dr. Mills had filed an official complaint, INZ was unable to comment further.
The spokesperson said that in most cases people can provide evidence that they normally reside in New Zealand at the time of travel.
“However, if there are circumstances where their usual resident status is unclear, INZ strongly recommends that individuals submit a request for assessment prior to traveling to New Zealand.
“Information on how to submit an assessment request is available on the INZ website. There is no charge for these applications for Australian citizens.”
