Editorial

Security

Politics

World

Letters

Sports

Obituaries

Archives

How new Zealand's leader got caught up in a flap involving a beleaguered Sri Lankan girl

Prime Minister Helen Clark today defended the Government's treatment of a young Sri Lankan woman who has been granted refugee status by the United Nations, despite being refused asylum here.

The woman, who claimed to have been sexually abused by family members in her home country, was deported from New Zealand two years ago in handcuffs and under sedation. She was 16 at the time.

The woman's New Zealand lawyer Carole Curtis told National Radio that when the young woman got to Sri Lanka, "what we thought would happen did happen and her life was at risk there".

"She was able to get to Hong Kong with the help of her grandmother and she stayed in Hong Kong with her mother who was there on a temporary work permit as a maid."

Ms Curtis paid tribute to the bravery of the woman's grandmother who sold her belongings to get her out of Sri Lanka. She said the woman was granted refugee status in Hong Kong, allowing her to have a work permit. With the help of Amnesty International and Ms Curtis the woman has since been granted refugee status by the office of the United National High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and has been accepted by Canada.

"She worked and put her life together again and has done extremely well and will be off to Canada to start a new life," Ms Curtis said.

Advertisement

Miss Clark today said she understood the UN decision was made on the basis of new information and at no stage had it criticised her government's decision.

"The refugee status was granted after information came to light which apparently was not available at the time the New Zealand system made its determination," Miss Clark told TV One's Breakfast show.

"The UN High Commission for Refugees has made no criticism of New Zealand whatsoever." She said she did not know what the new information was.

But Amnesty International New Zealand executive director Ced Simpson said today the only new information could have been that the woman was found to be in genuine danger, when she returned to Sri Lanka - something the woman's advocates had claimed all along.

"I'm not sure if that constitutes new information. It simply verifies the concerns we held in the first place," Mr Simpson told Breakfast.

He said the Government's "cavalier" attitude to the case was "embarrassing".

Argument

"What we argued at the time. . .was that there was insufficient weight being given to the fact that we were talking about a person who was legally still a child who had clearly gone through significant trauma that was not disputed by the government or any of the agencies that had anything to do with her in New Zealand."

Ms Curtis said she too was unaware of any new information and she found it extremely strange that the Labour Department's immigration service was claiming that was the case.

She said advocates did not try to get the woman back to New Zealand after she was granted refugee status by the UN as it was believed the Government might block the move.

National Party MP Judith Collins said yesterday the Government should be ashamed of the way it handled the case.

"The fact that her case for refugee status has been accepted by the UN serves to further illustrate a real lack of understanding and compassion on Labour's part."

Green Party MP Keith Locke said the Government needed to review the way it handled sensitive immigration cases.

The Sri Lankan teenager arrived with her grandmother in 2002 saying they were refugees from Sri Lanka's civil war but they switched to the truth - that she was the victim of sexual abuse by a relative - when their case was rejected by the Refugee Status Appeals Authority.

A second hearing by the authority acknowledged the abuse but ruled the family and Sri Lankan state would protect her from revenge attacks by her abusers.

The case caused a political row at the time and led to the resignation of immigration minister Lianne Dalziel after she misled a journalist over how a letter from the girl's lawyer got into the media.

(National News)

| News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security |
| Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries | Junior Observer |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.