A Kiwi-Indian mum is devastated to be not able to secure a place in the MIQ voucher system to travel urgently to grieve for her dead brother and her unborn child.
Hamilton-based Alpana Singh, who is New Zealand citizen and working full-time, is aghast that the unfair MIQ voucher booking system is preventing her from travelling overseas to grieve an unfortunate death in the family overseas.
Alpana with her brother
Notably, Managed isolation is now booked out until November, and many experts are calling out the system as ""unfair and discriminatory.""
Otago University law professor Andrew Geddis has criticised the managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) booking system as discriminatory, as it is revealed tech-savvy people are able to game the system to increase their chances of booking a room.
Alpana has been trying for weeks to secure a place in the MIQ system but has no luck yet and is devastated that she is expected to deal with this bureaucracy at such a distressful phase of her life when she has to grieve for her young brother and the unborn child.
Speaking to the Indian Weekender, Alpana said, "My only sibling (my 35-year old younger brother) passed away in India on May 1, 2021."
The catastrophic news had another distressful impact on Alpana as within 15 minutes, she experienced an unfortunate miscarriage and was required to be admitted to Auckland'sAuckland's Middlemore hospital.
Alpana's pain of double tragedy was further escalated with the scary thoughts about her old parents living overseas and dealing with their only son's unfortunate death in isolation, necessitating immediate counselling.
"[It] just happened within 15 minutes after hearing this shocking news, I had my third miscarrHospital was admitted to Middlemore hospital. I was traumatised and even sought help from a counsellor,"" Alpana said with tears in her voice.
Facing this double tragedy, Alpana first sought to apply for her old parents' temporary visa on humanitarian grounds so that they all can be together during this distressing time for the family.
"After a few weeks, I applied to immigration NZ through my lawyer for my parents' exemption to travel on humanitarian basis as I am desperate to meet and comfort my parents," Alpana said.
However, Immigration New Zealand declined the request saying that the applicants do not meet the criteria to be granted an exception to the current border closure on the basis of exceptional humanitarian circumstances.
Now with the only option of travelling overseas to be with her old parents and grieve the young death in the family, Alpana tried booking for MIQ space to make a certain plan for her travel and back into the country.
"I got my Covid Vaccination to prepare a for my visit to New Delhi where my old parents who have heart condition, asthma and neurological problems reside. I am their only surviving child. We need to be together as a family to grieve for my brother and my unborn child."
"I have been trying desperately to secure a MIQ voucher online for the 2nd week of November but have failed again and again," Alpana said.
Sharing her frustration on how any available dates within the MIQ system disappears within minutes, Alpana said, "Any vacant date (which magically appears for few seconds after days of waiting) when clicked, takes me back to the top of the page so there is no way that I can book a voucher."
"I tried calling the MIQ voucher helpline on Friday to raise the issue again (I had called one time previously and was told that vacant seats disappear within seconds) and gave up after being in the queue for 45 minutes."
"I am a working lady and cannot afford to sit in front of a computer 24 by 7 to wait for a MIQ seat," Alpana said.
"I see no end to my plight. I am traumatised, sad and angry that I cannot be there for the two most important people in my life, my parents. I am not asking for a voucher to travel for fun. I have always been a positive person, but this situation has broken me emotionally and financially too. I don't know what to do and where to go," Alpana said pleadingly.
The Indian Weekender had reached out to the MIQ department for a comment on the story.
A managed isolation and quarantine spokesperson told the Indian Weekender, "All applications for emergency allocation places in managed isolation are assessed on a case by case basis, against a set criteria. There is no guarantee that a person who fits within these categories will receive an emergency allocation as it depends on the numbers of applicants and available places. The reality is there remains a finite capacity within the MIQ system."
"There are currently 250 rooms per fortnight set aside for those who need to travel urgently. We will review this number over time to ensure it is sufficient to accommodate travel which is genuinely urgent while not compromising the operational safety of our 31 facilities."
"These decisions are not easy ones to make and we are sympathetic to the distressing situations people applying for an emergency allocation are in. However, we need to balance each individual application with our critical work to ensure the safety of all New Zealanders and the limited available capacity in managed isolation facilities by sequencing beds as they become available. MIQ also needs to prioritise the applications to ensure they reflect the most urgent and time-critical situations," the MIQ spokesperson said.
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