"This is about family, it's about New Zealand as a nation of immigrants", says David Seymour at REUNITEFAMALIESNZ photo exhibition

On the evening of 14th of May when Mount Eden village was in Friday feels, down with a few beer bottles, the village center had a photo exhibition showcasing the split migrant families, their canvas portraying smiles yet gripped with sadness, stories that not only moved everyone present in the gallery but also bought tears in their eyes. 

An effort by the REUNITE FAMILIES NZ Facebook group, a place for split migrant partners and families to come together to share and access information, created this heart-moving exhibition where 28 stories out of 100 applications were selected, and this was purely due to space constraints in the gallery. 

The speakers of the evening included David Seymour (ACT party leader), Erica Stanford (National party immigration spokesperson), Ricardo Menéndez March (Green Party immigration spokesperson), Helen White (Labour Party List MP), Adriana Christie ( Auckland Council - Waitemata Local Board), they were not the only ones as migrants who at present are facing immigration wrath and at the same time separated from their loved ones were heard with much love. 

The emotions were raw as the stories unfolded after the MPs spoke at the exhibition. Anger, frustration, helplessness, tears, grief, and sorrow was evident. It wasn’t great to see Helen White take the brunt of what we call Labour’s inconsistency in giving migrants a clear answer. 

A woman with her very young girls, separated from her husband for the last 16 months lost all her patience, drew out all the facts and figures on how the government had let her and her family down when it came to reuniting them. The crowd saw the little girl break down into tears as her mother spoke to Helen White accusing her government of all the miseries laid down on her family.  

“Had the immigration minister been here tonight seeing the face of this little girl, who hasn’t seen her dad for 16 months, I think they would think very differently” exclaimed Erica Stanford.

“This is not a political issue it is a personal issue,” said Erica who criticized the government for its incompetency in handling migrant issues for which she speaks every day in and out. She says this is not even a political issue because the people she is standing up for cannot even vote for her in elections and why? Because they are not even residents, perhaps can’t even see themselves becoming one for another 4 to 5 years in the near future, thanks to the broken immigration system.

While everyone acknowledges that the biggest reason for such happenings is the pandemic yet they fail to accept that how can they or their families bring the virus into the country? Working as health care workers it's extremely important for them to take care of the kiwis, the people they work for. They realize there are protocols that need to be followed, they are ready to pay for the quarantine spaces, they are ready to wait but they need assurance from the government.

“I am a highly-skilled worker here, I am applying for jobs where I would get a salary bracket that would prioritize my application. What else do they want me to do? My child refuses to call me his dad, he has forgotten who his father is” says an Indian man who broke down in front of more than 50 people at the exhibition. His wife in a broken voice added that their child was around 2 and a half years when they last saw him and is at the moment under his grandparent's guardianship.

“This is about family, it's about New Zealand as a nation of immigrants and I know that you will succeed because all epidemics end,” said David Seymour. 

The entire team including Polina Chernyshova, Cynthia Garton, Justin Sobion, and others showed great support to the migrant families present and were nothing but a pillar of strength to them. Like Katy  Armstrong said she could have collected water tanks in her office, where tissue papers ran out of stock concluding that there are many stories that she has heard that have brought nothing but tears in her eyes. 

The migrants separated from their loved ones, families, migrants on a post-study work visa, migrants stuck offshore or migrants living in New Zealand have lost trust in the government which talked about being kind and compassionate towards people. Their only hope is in people like Ricardo Menéndez March who are always there to hear them out and take their voices in debates and discussions in parliament, where even after resistance from the ruling party they keep pushing migrants issues, making it clear that migrant lives matter! -TIN Bureau