Calls to scrap discriminatory immigration health requirements

Tuesday, 22 August 2023

Aucklander Juliana Carvalho has spent eight years fighting for residency. Now, she finally has it (video first published in September 2020).

Twenty-two organisations have signed an open letter calling on political parties to abolish the Acceptable Standard of Health criteria for visa approvals.

The open letter written by Migrants Against the Acceptable Standard of Health Aotearoa (MAASHA) detailed the discrimination caused by immigration requirements which consider disabled migrants and those with health conditions to be cost burdens.

“The ASH requirements are deeply colonial,” reads the letter. “As the Crown seeks to be a more honourable Tiriti partner, it could embrace Māori legal scholar Khylee Quince's call for a relationship-based immigration system grounded in the values of manaaki (host responsibility and care), utu (reciprocity) and aroha (love and compassion).

“These foundational values show that there is nothing inherent or necessary about categorising migrants based on economic worth and that more just, Tiriti-based immigration protocols honour human rights by default.”

Signatories include Action Station, Migrant Workers Association, Disabled Persons Assembly, Oxfam Aotearoa, Generation Zero, Outline Aotearoa, Inclusive Aotearoa Collective Tāhono. Recognised experts and advocates have also signed on, including immigration researchers, disability advocates and medical practitioners.

Áine Kelly-Costello, organiser of MAASHA, says the mental health toll that the Acceptable Standard of Health policy poses on migrants with disabilities can’t be overstated. (Image description: Kelly-Costello is standing in front of a tree by a lake. She smiles at the camera while holding her cane.)

MAASHA organiser Áine Kelly-Costello says the breadth of support to scrap the ableist, unjust ASH requirements strengthens the mandate for political parties to immediately commit to doing so in their election pledges.

“MAASHA regularly supports people impacted by this discrimination. The mental health toll that comes directly from these requirements considering migrants with disabilities and health conditions to be cost burdens can't be overstated.

“Maintaining this discrimination is a political choice. This election, we call on all political parties to choose human rights and justice over ableism.”

Anjum Rahman, co-leader of the Inclusive Aotearoa Collective Tāhono, says treating human beings solely as a cost is not a valid reason to discriminate. (Image description: Rahman stands in front of a white wall and smiles towards the top left corner of the frame. She is wearing a bright orange dress and dark orange hijab.)

Anjum Rahman, the co-leader of Inclusive Aotearoa Collective Tāhono, said, “Treating human beings as solely a cost and a burden, without recognising their intrinsic value and all that they bring, is not a valid reason to discriminate.

“Disabled people and older persons must not be measured in the potential health dollars they might cost, but rather, be treated fairly and seen as whole people who bring so much to society.

Immigration officials have told a migrant mother not to ask for mental health support as it would affect her family's visa application.

“Freedom from discrimination is a core right, and while there may be some genuine reasons why we need to discriminate for particular reasons, these reasons should be transparent and clearly articulated.”

The letter also highlighted concerns for disabled people who are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis: “Multiple Pacific disability and climate organisations have further highlighted that it poses a barrier to people with disabilities seeking to migrate due to facing untenable climate impacts, which is out of step with climate justice.”

Dr Olivia Yates, a community psychologist and board member of Generation Zero, said that the Acceptable Standard of Health policy will create “an immigration system that not only bars disabled people from residency, but also actively traps them in sites of climate risk”.

In September last year, New Zealand’s progress against its international obligations in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was reviewed.

The convention's expert committee explicitly called for an end to the disability discrimination, recommending immigration and asylum legislation to be reviewed and amended with consultation of disabled people, migrants and refugees to ensure that they do not face discrimination in processes relating to immigration and asylum.

The Government is yet to publish its response to the committee's recommendations.