Border-reopening: Petition launched to extend ‘expired visas’ of temporary migrants stuck overseas

A petition has been launched to request the government to consider extending expired visas of temporary migrants locked out of New Zealand borders for the last two years.

Migrant United Council Inc – a migrant advocacy body, has launched a petition to ask the government to extend the visas of temporary migrant workers locked out of the country since the last two years of the border closure.

Notably, the Minister of Immigration Kris Faafoi had earlier told the Indian Weekender at the beginning of the year on January 19 that the government had no plans of extending the temporary visas of migrants currently offshore because of Covid border restrictions.

That news had then broken many hearts and shattered many hopes, yet the temporary migrant workers and their migrant advocates are refusing to give up and are continuing with their advocacy work.

The recent announcement of border reopening by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on February 3 and the ensuing five-stage phased process of border reopening that will see a new set of temporary migrant workers and their families be entering New Zealand has generated a new sense of vigour and commitment amongst the migrant workers’ advocates to raise the demands for temporary migrant workers locked out of the country.

Speaking to the Indian Weekender, Rajeev Bajwa of Migrant United Council Inc said, “We welcome the decision to reopen New Zealand’s borders to valid visa holders from April 12 2022.

(Rajeev Bajwa of Migrants United Council

“However, many visas expired while the borders were closed by the Government.”

We believe this is unfair on those migrants who have been adversely affected as a result of restrictions imposed by the government,” Mr Bajwa said.

In less than five days of the petition launch, around 1500 people have signed the petition.

21,000 temporary visa holders currently offshore

Earlier, the Indian Weekender had exclusively reported on February 6 that there were 21,000 temporary visa holders locked out of the country.

An official spokesperson of Immigration New Zealand had then said, “there are around 21,000 current temporary visa holders offshore.” 

As per the government’s latest announcement on border reopening, all such temporary migrant workers who still have valid visas and meet eligibility criteria (particularly an existing job offer with the same employer) will be allowed to enter NZ at the third stage of border reopening from April 13.

However, it is widely understood within the community that there will not be any significant numbers of temporary migrant workers who will still be able to meet these unrealistic rules after two long years.

Either most of the visas would have been expired by now, or even if, in a few lucky cases where a short visa tenure of two or three months still left, the immigration officers at the entry-port may or may not allow to enter the country.

Under the current immigration laws, an immigration officer at the borders has to be convinced that the person seeking entry into the country has a valid reason and a valid visa to enter in NZ, and with only 1-2 months of valid time left on their visas could not be enough to convince IO’s to allow their entry into the country.

Even Immigration New Zealand does not have any expectations of receiving any significant number of applications for entry into NZ at the third stage of border reopening under current rules.

A hope after border reopening announcement

Explaining the rationale behind the timing of this new petition, despite the Immigration Minister’s previous stated comment of not extending expired visas of temporary migrants, Mr Bajwa said, “The border opening announcement by the government had changed the situation now.”

“As the government opens border for New Zealanders and foreigners alike and bring a new set of temporary migrant workers, there should not be any problem in bringing back those temporary migrants who had the necessary skills and were already living and working in New Zealand,”Mr Bajwa said.

Appeal to the community to sign the petition

Several community leaders and the members of the community are coming out to sign the petition and support this call for extending the “expired visas” of temporary migrant workers locked out of the country

“We are starting to see the numbers, but we would like to call out the wider migrant communities to join the efforts and sign the petition to request the government to do the right thing – bring back the temporary migrants locked out of NZ’s closed border.”

“Now that we are opening our borders, we want the government to allow them back into the country,” Rajeev Bajwa said.