An Auckland mother-of-one who is trying to get her parents here to help her through breast cancer treatment is frustrated at the discrepancy between immigration officials and those running MIQ.
Jenny Dicker's parents, Jeoffrey and Helen Hill, have been granted a critical purpose visa to fly from Surrey, in the United Kingdom to New Zealand.
But the visa is rendered meaningless, because as British citizens they aren’t entitled to an emergency MIQ slot; and it’s unclear when the next room release is scheduled for.
“To give us security and recognise that it is time sensitive, but have no practical way of using that visa is quite cruel really,” Dicker told 1News.
The 35-year-old began treatment for triple positive breast cancer, just two days before Christmas.
It was just two weeks prior that she’d gotten “the call no-one wants to get”.
“It’s a total whirlwind. It’s just layers of grief, the things you thought you were going to do,” she said.
“You know we were planning to start trying for a second child, and that’s not going to happen… possibly ever.”
And while the cancer is aggressive, Dicker says doctors are still working to cure her.
But caring for her only child Ethan, who is a toddler, while going through the necessary treatment, is tough.
“I don’t have my previous energy, having a 20-month old is high energy. I obviously want to try and play with him and hopefully for him it’s not too big a change.”
Her husband and friends are all pitching in and doing what they can to help, but “every girl wants her mum".
Her parents are also desperate to be there for her in person. As her father said there’s just no replacement for the real thing.
“Watching your daughter [cry] over Zoom is not good. There is no hug button."
Her mother said being so far away makes a difficult situation even harder.
“Nobody wants their daughter to have cancer, but when she’s on the other side of the world… she has a little boy, and a husband and that is it, there is only so much supportive friends can do.”
The family have put in an application for an exemption from MIQ in a last ditch bid to be able to fly as soon as possible.
But they’ve not heard back.
“They’ve been triple vaccinated, they are retired anyway, so they would isolate and would do everything the New Zealand Government would need us to do,” Dicker said.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment made no comment on the family’s case, and offered no alternative solution.
But a spokesperson said in a statement “anyone who is legally entitled to enter the country can apply for an Emergency Allocation of an MIQ voucher” but that the process is for “limited situations” which require urgent travel within 14 days.
They added there is a “high threshold” for an MIQ exemption.
Dicker and her parents are pleading with authorities to take a more nuanced approach when it comes to assessing the risk of families in need.
“It’s people on the other side of these rules and policies, it would just be nice if there was a bit of a recognition of that… it’s people’s stories and people’s lives, not just an application number on the form.”
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