Immigration NZ 'facilitating abuse' of migrant women who can't leave abusive partners without being deported
Friday, 6 November 2020
A migrant woman, trapped with a violent partner who had convictions for strangulation and threatening to kill her, called Immigration New Zealand (INZ) to ask what would happen if she left her abuser.
She was told by the government department she would have 48 hours to leave the country.
Another woman was told to ask her violent partner for written consent to keep her children, while another lived in a garage with her two children in fear of deportation for two-and-a-half years until her visa was granted.
An internal review into INZ’s handling of visas for migrant victims of family violence has heard of women forced to stay in life-threatening situations, with inconsistent decisions and lengthy processes adding to trauma for those who do escape violent men.
**READ MORE:
* For some women, there is only a thin line of defence against violent death
* Domestic abuse victim's battle with Immigration New Zealand for new wife's visa
* Family violence survivor's long battle to remain with her children in New Zealand
**
The visa status of many migrant women is tied to their partner. Reviewers were told visas were commonly used as a tool of control, with abusers threatening women with deportation and separation from their children if they left.
Despite acknowledging immigration law-related abuse was a “common issue,” and that a United Nations watchdog in 2018 had called for urgent action, the ensuing report recommended no policy changes.
Instead, INZ pledged to give staff family violence training and provide better information and interpreters for applicants.
Women’s organisations are unhappy with the “disappointing” response, saying a complete overhaul is needed to align New Zealand with other developed countries like Australia and the UK. They say INZ is helping to facilitate abuse, as women are forced to stay in violent relationships.
Women's Refuge head Ang Jury said while Australia’s policy was designed with the aim that a victim does not stay with an abuser, ours appeared not to care.
“It is torturous, and it gives very little consideration or empathy to the position these women are in. The only thing that would make a difference is changing the whole system, so we are at least protecting them as well as we protect our own women.”
Migrant women can apply for a family violence residence visa, a special category which allows them to stay here. They have to provide proof of their abuse, and that a return to their home country would put them in danger of abuse, exclusion and with no financial support. Half of these applications are declined.
Sarah Croskery-Hewitt of Wellington Community Law said she knew of a case where INZ officials questioned information provided by police, who had attended the family violence incident. In another case, a woman who applied for a family violence visa was deemed to be a liar because she hadn’t alerted INZ to the abuse she suffered while she had been applying for a partnership visa with her former partner.
Croskery-Hewitt said in Australia, women do not have to prove they will suffer stigma-related abuse in their own country, and have more streamlined pathways. That requirement needed to be removed here, and a new visa created for women with children who were New Zealand citizens, she said.
Sahaayta migrant support services counsellor Zoya Kara said many ethnic women were completely disempowered. “They don’t know what the law is, what they're eligible for, and sometimes they don't even have access to their own passports. They are told ‘I bought you in to the country, I can get you kicked out.’
“They endure the physical and emotional violence because of the fear of going back, which comes with a lot of stigma.”
Non-profit organisations Shakti, Hamilton’s Shama, Wellington Women’s Refuge and Wellington Community Law all told INZ its bar was too high and decisions inconsistent.
One Fijian-Indian woman had her application declined, despite INZ’s own research finding that “divorce may well be the ugliest word in the [Fijian] Indian community. So much stigma does it contain that … there remain many parents who would prefer to see their children, especially daughters, live miserably for the rest of their lives rather than be divorced … When a man abuses his wife, the community not only expects her to suffer it, but often blames her for it too”.
Past appeals by Wellington Community Law to former Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway and undersecretary for justice Jan Logie have failed. In 2018, Lees-Galloway said policy change was not a current priority.
Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi was not available for an interview. In a statement, he said the report would guide improvements in dealing with visa applicants.
“As a result of the report, INZ will be making changes in some areas of operations to address the recommendations.
“I will be keeping an eye on how progress is made, and I will be looking at policy-related issues raised in the report to see where changes might be appropriate.”
An INZ spokesperson said improving the department’s approach to preventing and responding to family violence was an “ongoing priority”.
“INZ and relevant teams within the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) have started to implement actions to respond to findings identified in the report.
“This includes designing specialist family violence training for staff, providing the NGOs with a dedicated INZ point of contact, using the Language Assistance Services Programme for interpreting, and improving INZ’s information provision on family violence visas.”
More operational and policy changes may be considered in the future, the spokesperson said.
A Stuff investigation as part of the Homicide Report found after Pākehā and Māori, South Asian and Fijian-Indian women are the third most likely to die at the hands of partners or ex-partners, with their deaths typically extremely violent.