More than 30 organisations, including World Vision NZ and Amnesty International, called on the government in March to allow Palestinians who have family members in Aotearoa to travel there under a special humanitarian visa.

In recent years, similar visas have been created for Ukrainians and Afghans fleeing conflict in their home countries. More than six months later, the National coalition government is yet to act correspondingly for Palestinians.

World Vision NZ said on October 1: “The crisis in the Middle East has been nothing short of devastating. The loss of lives and the suffering of children is unbearable. What’s truly heart-breaking is that New Zealand has the ability to offer tangible help, yet our government has done little. We urge the government to take a more proactive and compassionate stance now.”

Currently, Palestinians with family stuck in the besieged enclave have few options to assist their relatives in obtaining entry to Aotearoa. The two existing pathways are via the refugee quota, or a visitor visa.

To be accepted under the refugee quota, applicants have to be referred to Immigration New Zealand (INZ) by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The quota is 1500 people per annum.

The requirements for a visitor visa include being able to demonstrate good health, having genuine intentions to depart Aotearoa when the visa expires, and being able to provide evidence of onward travel, as well as funds to live on while in the country.

Palestinians who have been living under bombardment, ethnic cleansing and genocide for 12 months will undoubtedly not be able to meet these standards.

In response to the call for a new visa, INZ said: “Where New Zealand has previously created new visa pathways for certain conflicts these have been in response to specific and different circumstances.

“Afghanistan was a situation where unique circumstances required a targeted approach as Afghan nationals were at risk of harm due to their previous work and connections with the New Zealand Defence Force and other agencies in Afghanistan.

“Ukraine was an unusual situation given the fact that the UNHCR was unable to refer people from Ukraine to New Zealand through INZ’s refugee quota, which meant there were limited pathways for Ukrainian refugees.”

A bespoke visa was created for Ukrainians within 19 days of the war with Russia breaking out in 2022. The visa enabled citizens and residents of Aotearoa who were born in Ukraine, or were Ukrainian citizens, to sponsor Ukrainian family members and their immediate families.

Despite the speed in which the visa was created, the National party, then in opposition, were highly critical of the ruling Labour government’s delay in actioning a humanitarian visa scheme.

At the time, National party MP Erica Stanford accused immigration minister Kris Faafoi of forcing Ukrainians to apply for an “unfit-for-purpose existing visa” instead of creating a “simple, easy-to-use humanitarian visa for wider family members”.

Stanford succeeded Faafoi as immigration minister when the National coalition took government in November last year. Now, advocates are pointing out her double standard of not issuing a similar visa for Palestinians.

According to INZ’s October 20 update, since October last year, 809 visa applications have been received from Israelis, of which 659 have been approved, 29 declined and the remainder are either in progress or have been withdrawn.

In the same period, 207 applications have been received from Palestinian passport holders. Of those, 119 have been approved, 39 declined, and the remainder are either in progress or have been withdrawn.

Of the approved applications, 214 Israelis and 38 Palestinians have now arrived in Aotearoa.

In February, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) informed Stanford that there were “practically insurmountable barriers and immense risks to Palestinians leaving the region”. Based on that advice, she has since repeatedly stated that her government has not issued a bespoke visa because Palestinians are unable to leave Gaza, and she does not want to offer them “false hope”.

The Labour party has labelled the National party’s position as “patronising” and “wrong”, pointing out that while travel outside of Gaza currently requires approval from Israeli authorities, visas can help facilitate such approval.

Advocates have also pointed out that a visa would offer a route to safety for anyone who has already made it across the border into Egypt, and would be helpful should the situation in Gaza change and Palestinians were able to leave.

World Vision NZ’s Head of Advocacy and Justice Rebekah Armstrong said: “Australia and Canada have demonstrated stronger leadership through their policy responses to assist Palestinians to come to their countries.” The organisation acknowledges the challenges for people to safely exit the region but maintains that granting humanitarian visas is not an act of “false hope”, as Stanford claims.

Canada increased its specialist visa quota in May, from 1000‒5000, despite the Gaza borders being tightly closed. Canadian Immigration Minister Marc Miller said then that “the situation may change at any time and the program’s cap increase will allow Canada to be ready to help more people as the situation evolves”.

Documents released under the Official Information Act show Stanford requested information from MBIE on what NZ’s “Migration 5” partner countries had been doing to set up similar visa pathways as far back as December last year. Migration 5 is a coalition of the immigration authorities of Australia, Canada, Britain and the United States, which allows the “Five Eyes” intelligence alliance partners to share information about who crosses their borders.

Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke announced on October 1 that he had issued the first humanitarian visas to Palestinian families, following a year of sustained pressure from the Greens and other advocacy groups.

The three-year visas allow holders to work and study, as well as access Medicare and other support services. At the end of that period, people may be eligible to apply for permanent residency.

However, critics point out that these humanitarian visas have so far only been issued to Palestinians already in Australia on visitor or bridging visas, and are being issued on a case-by-case basis. Burke has to personally sign off each one.

Since October last year, Stanford has steadfastly refused to meet with Aotearoa’s Palestinian community, despite many requests to do so.

Palestinian Youth Aotearoa co-founder Minas Al-Ansari said on March 10: “Our families are being killed and we are helpless to save them. One member of our community has lost 120 members of their family.

“If Erica Stanford [and] this National-led government had granted special humanitarian visas early, as was done for Ukraine, there is absolutely no doubt lives would have been saved.

“Every day that goes by more people are dying. Our children, our elders, our people, have a Right to Life as defined by Article 3 of the International Declaration of Human Rights.”

Since March, tens of thousands more lives have been lost in Gaza. The Palestinian community in Aotearoa are left watching the genocide unfold on their phones, acutely aware that the longer Stanford and the National government wait to act, the longer their family members’ lives will be at risk.

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Zara Lomas

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