Cabinet papers have revealed that ministers approved plans a year ago to reunite families split by the border closures, but later said that it was not necessary.
The documents, published last month, show that about 14,000 separated partners and children, who were not covered by other border exemptions, were waiting to enter the country last July.
“I propose to introduce a border exception to enable partners and dependents of all eligible onshore temporary work visa holders to enter New Zealand,” said then immigration minister Kris Faafoi.
The papers show that Cabinet agreed to the change in border settings on 12 July 2021. It then delayed the decision for a month because of a lack of space in managed isolation (MIQ).
Then, on 30 September 2021, the government announced that it would offer “one-off” residence permits to up to 165,000 migrants.
Because of the new residence permits, Cabinet decided that “the family reunification border exception is no longer needed, as many workers will be able to bring their eligible partners and dependents to New Zealand as part of their residence application”.
However, many families who were split by the border closures are reporting that they have not been successful in gaining the one-off residence permits.
Immigration adviser Katy Armstrong, who has campaigned for changes, said that there have been delays in processing and that many separated families have not been given priority.
She said that in many cases split families have taken longer than those who are together in New Zealand, or people with no families. Applications also became “stuck” in the system, often for no apparent reason.
The timing of the release of the Cabinet papers also indicated a continuing lack of transparency, she added.
“Why did they sit on that? Now that’s over a year ago, that’s incredible really and it feels to me as though they’ve timed it. It’s a way of releasing that information, probably making less noise, they just slip it out. And then we got to the February border opening, and we said please now we don’t have MIQ let the families in and they still didn’t let them in. Why?”
