breathe a huge sigh of relief, as the High Court of New Zealand ruled that Immigration New Zealand was wrong in delaying processing the visa applications of their relatives on account of the pandemic, and for failing to make an exception on humanitarian grounds. In its judgement issued on Monday (22 Nov), the tribunal said that under the Immigration Act 2009, the applications must be assessed in accordance with the instructions that were in effect at the time the application was made, which means that restrictions on entry to the country due to COVID-19 fell outside the law.
Abdul, whose name has been changed to protect family who remain in Afghanistan, was a member of the group who brought legal proceedings against New Zeeland’s Minister for Immigration. He had worked as a translator for the NZDF for years in the city of Bamyan, in central Afghanistan, before coming to New Zealand in 2014.
“The first day when the Taliban arrived in Kabul, my house was searched by the Taliban,” he told the Guardian, adding that just half an hour before his house was searched, he asked his relatives to burn all the documents he had received from Kiwi troops. “If something happens to my sister, [my wife] is saying I am guilty and telling me – ‘Why did you work for them? Why put the life of everyone at risk to work for [New Zealand]?’”
In its ruling, the High Court also declared Immigration New Zealand’s failure to apply humanitarian exceptions for these applications was erroneous. According to Sue Moroney, the head of Community Law Centres Aotearoa, this is expected to have implications on anyone seeking a New Zealand visa on humanitarian grounds.
“They were applying a criteria that the humanitarian grounds had to exist here in New Zealand, rather than in the country that they’re trying to escape from. The judge found that that was wrong. So that has significant implications for the number of people who now would be eligible under that criteria,” she said.
