Taranaki couple stranded in India do not meet high re-entry border criteria
A Taranaki couple stranded in India since March have been told by Immigration New Zealand that their essential skills work visas do not meet the high bar set for re-entry to the country. Supermarket manager Harpreet Kaur and her husband Sukhjinder Singh, a dairy farm manager, went to India to visit an unwell relative on March 8, but were unable to book return flights when the border closed on March 19 due to Covid-19. The couple, with their young son, Jazzveer, have been living with extended family near Chandigarh, the capital of Punjab, since March. The city has had 10 Covid-19 deaths from 600 confirmed cases up to July 15. All the family's personal belongings are in New Zealand, while they continue to pay for electricity, car finance and insurance despite having no income for four months. The couple have applied for re-entry on humanitarian grounds but have been declined 14 times by Immigration NZ. READ MORE: * Immigration Minister's message to work visa holders offshore: stay where you are for the time being * Coronavirus: Kiwi diagnosed with rare cancer in Romania struggling to get home * Coronavirus: Government extends migrant work visas for six months but cuts timeframe for new essential skills visas In a statement, INZ border and visa operations general manager Nicola Hogg said the couples essential skills work visa did not necessarily translate to being essential under current criteria. They do not meet the high bar required for the border exception under humanitarian grounds, Hogg said. The New Zealand border remained closed for all unless an exception was made for critical travel, such as partners, dependent children, health workers, or legal guardians. Singh could be granted a border exception as an other critical worker status if his employer applied under that category, she said. Hogg said the bar for granting border exceptions was set high to stop the spread of Covid-19 and protect the health of New Zealanders, which was paramount. The couple have no right of appeal. Kaur is the retail manager at Bell Block Four Square supermarket, and Singh is a farm manager at Tikorangi, north of New Plymouth. Singhs employers, John and Marie Hamblyn, have asked Taranaki King Country MP Barbara Kuriger to help. Kuriger said only farm workers already in New Zealand could extend their visas. If they are not, there is very little to no chance of getting anyone back in if they are not a New Zealander, she said in an email to Hamblyn. Speaking to Stuff on Sunday, Kuriger said the couple are stuck in India through no fault of their own. Where is the risk of them coming back to New Zealand, if they go into quarantine? Kuriger said it was not realistic to think New Zealanders would fill farming vacancies. Are people currently without jobs going to uplift their families to come down and work on farms? Hamblyn, who had hired two inexperienced staff to cover for Singh, said qualified managers were difficult to find. Work would increase as the calving season progressed, he said. Kaur said they couple were running out of savings. We were not eligible for subsidies because the dairy farm and Four Square were running in lock down, she said. Kaur is concerned her 4-year-old son would miss out on the start of his education. We are not asking to open the borders, we are just requesting that New Zealand hold our visas, or give us specific time frame when we can travel, she said. We are happy to pay our quarantine expenses as well.