Analysis: Concern over incentivising trafficking is one of the reasons Immigration New Zealand has cited for not reuniting young Afghan evacuees with their families. 1News reporter Corazon Miller looks at whether there was similar concern over exploitation in some other immigration schemes.
When 20 Afghan children arrived in New Zealand without their parents in 2021, the case for compassion seemed clear.
They were children who were separated from their parents in the chaos of Kabul’s fall to the Taliban. Two years on, many of them are no closer to knowing when they’ll see them again.
So, what is New Zealand’s moral obligation to this small group of Afghan children and their quest to bring their families here?
Of course, officials must draw the line somewhere when it comes to refugees and asylum seekers, but New Zealand currently has one of the lowest numbers of refugees per capita.
Five came alone, three of whom had no family links in New Zealand. (Source: 1News)
Yet when Arezo Nazari’s story of fleeing to New Zealand from Afghanistan was published, it led some to ask why she, and any of these children, should be entitled to bring their parents here.
The official stance is, they’re not.
While ultimately every child has a right under humanitarian law to be with family, this does have to be weighed up against other legal and humanitarian considerations.
With no policy in place in New Zealand to reunite the Afghan minors with their parents, it does fall to the Associate Minister of Immigration to apply discretion in any case where all other legal avenues have been exhausted. So far, that discretion has not been used.
Despite extensive interviews, research and investigation into some of these cases, it’s been a struggle to paint a clear picture of how some of these children arrived here.
In the absence of any clear truth, officials have expressed a fear that allowing parents to follow them could open the gates for dozens more refugees and put other minors at risk of exploitation.
Exploitation allegations elsewhere in the system
But where was this fear around the risks of exploitation when officials considered how we could bring in more workers to help employers get much-needed staff?
Official data shows that of the thousands of workers and employees coming in via the new Accredited Employer Work Visa scheme, few were checked or verified.
Dozens of people have since come forward with allegations of worker exploitation. An independent review into the scheme is underway, and the Government is supporting affected workers with housing and living costs.
In comparison, Arezo Nazari was extensively interviewed three times as officials grappled with what they described as inconsistencies in her story. But despite being unable to conclude she was trafficked, her pleas to allow her parents to join her went unanswered.
The comments come after 1News revealed 20 children arrived here without their parents following Afghanistan’s fall to the Taliban. (Source: 1News)
If she hadn’t held out hope that they would be joining her here, she could have joined them in Sweden. But now she’s 18 that would require officials there to make allowances too.
Options for these Afghan children remain limited. The only pathway is family reunification, which is not open to all of them, and even if it was, with only 600 places granted a year, those chances remain slim.
When looking at the outcome in both scenarios with regards to Immigration procedures, it does beg the question if the balance that’s been struck here is the right one – especially when it is children that seem to be paying the higher price.
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