Add StudioX as a preferred source on GoogleA Sri Lankan woman says she has been stuck on the Cook Islands for three years because no country will let her pass through on the way home, according to a report by BBC World.
Ruchira Ranasingha, 50, told the BBC she is desperate to return to Sri Lanka. She said she has offered to travel “handcuffed, bound and gagged” if that is what it takes.
How she ended up stranded
Ranasingha left Sri Lanka in 2018 after closing her small T-shirt factory when business dried up. Struggling to repay loans, she went to Hong Kong to work as a caregiver. Her brother told BBC Sinhala she was under immense financial pressure.
In December 2022 she travelled to New Zealand on a two-month visitor visa. As it neared expiry, she says, she applied for asylum, citing threats from lenders in Sri Lanka. She was given a one-year open work visa and took a restaurant job. The employer agreed to sponsor an employment visa, but that application was declined. Asylum seekers generally cannot apply for other visas while their claims are processed.
She says she then contacted a firm called Immigration & Secretarial Services, which told her a new application could be filed from overseas. Emails seen by the BBC show its manager, Sylviane Gallant, saying she would start the process once Ranasingha had left New Zealand. Ranasingha booked a short stay in the Cook Islands.
The new application was refused. By leaving New Zealand, she had also breached the terms of her existing visa, and authorities made clear she would not get future visas. She says Gallant later admitted the situation was her fault. The BBC contacted Gallant but received no response.
No route home
Ranasingha says she then tried to fly home with an Air New Zealand ticket but was told she needed a New Zealand transit visa. Three applications were rejected, as were four for Australian transit visas. The only other destinations reachable from the Cook Islands, Tahiti and Hawaii, require biometric details to be given in person in New Zealand before a visa can be processed.
Her most recent New Zealand application cited her son’s wedding in November and her mother’s poor health. It was also refused. She says she has lost large sums on tickets and paid thousands of New Zealand dollars in fees to the firm.
Immigration New Zealand told the BBC it was not satisfied she had a genuine intention to transit through the country. The immigration minister’s office said handcuffs and an escort do not stop someone from making an asylum claim. Australia’s interior ministry said it does not comment on individual cases and that travellers must meet the requirements of its migration law.
Auckland immigration law specialist Alastair McClymont said she received “terrible advice” and pointed to an industry of so-called consultants who lodge applications without fully grasping the risks. He suggested authorities see her as unlikely to return to Sri Lanka, given her asylum claim said her life was in danger there. In his view, no transit country will want to take that risk.
Help on the islands, worry at home
Ranasingha says she is better off than others in her position. A hotel lets her stay free in staff accommodation, locals have given her food and clothing, and a hotel director gave her a sewing machine so she can earn a little money. Even so, she says the stress is affecting her health.
Her brother says the family has tried every possible avenue without success and that her mental state is poor. Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry told the BBC it is taking all necessary steps to facilitate her return, working with its High Commission in Wellington and New Zealand authorities.
Source: BBC World
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