Family Separation is a Violation of International Law
A broken Immigration system.

New Zealand immigration laws provide a framework for us to manage immigration in a way that balances our national interests with our international obligations, protecting both New Zealanders and migrants. In particular, the Immigration Act 2009 provides a legal basis for New Zealand to meet its international responsibilities under the Refugee Convention, the Convention Against Torture, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
Devastating to the individuals involved and frequently destructive in its long-term impact on cultural groups and entire societies, the involuntary separation of families is a widespread problem that deserves increased attention as an issue of international human rights.
Talking about involuntary separation of families in New Zealand, in the past a general visitor visa could be granted to a partner of a NZ citizen or resident for the purpose of a family visit. So, partners have been applying for general visitor visas to visit or join their families in New Zealand. This has been the practice for many years and our clients have not faced significant or ongoing problems.
From May 2019, Immigration New Zealand (INZ) changed the policy stating that applicants in a partnership with a NZ citizen or resident can no longer apply for a general visitor visa, instead must apply for a partnership-based visa although they may not be eligible under the Family Partnership Instructions – for example they may not be able to meet ‘living together’ requirement. That gives a good reason from immigration officers to decline those applicants’ visas. Clearly, the change in policy was amongst many other government initiatives directed at reducing the number of visas approved.
The irony is immigration officials are separating partners and children from their New Zealand based family members who have been granted work visas to work in industries where there is skills shortage. Their family members are not even allowed to visit them in New Zealand by not approving visitor visas. In these circumstances, governments initiatives to discourage family reunification could be seen as cruel and inhuman and at the least violation of international law (Brilmayer, Lea and Starr, Sonja, “Family Separation as a Violation of International Law” (2003). Faculty Scholarship Series. 2436)
https://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/fss_papers/2436
It will be interesting to see how many general visitor visa applications have been approved for partners of NZ citizens or residents compared to the number of applications lodged since May 2019.
IR Legal specialises in Immigration Law, Tax Law and AML/CFT Laws.
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