By 1news.co.nz
New Zealand resident Alamoni Langi relies on Mele, his wife of six years, who is his constant companion.
Blind since the age of 15 and physically disabled due to a stroke Alamoni says without her, he’d be lost.
The couple has been fighting for Mele’s residency since their marriage in 2017, but Immigration New Zealand doesn’t believe their relationship is a legitimate one.
This is despite a raft of evidence — at least 36 documents ranging from bank statements, to letters from two church leaders, a neighbour who is a doctor, disability groups, medical authorities and community members all saying the Langis are a couple.
The pair first met in Tonga in 2016 and reconnected in Auckland the following year when Mele visited New Zealand and was at the same kava event as Alamoni.
Lawyer Soane Foliaki says there is a cultural disconnect between Immigration NZ and his Pasifika clients and it beggars belief that the large amount of evidence has been ignored.
“The officers need to understand and I don’t think they do — and Tonga is a small country and a small community — if you marry you marry, you are respected as a married couple.”
Speaking in Tongan, Alamoni, who was a widower when he met his current wife, tells 1News that if the worst was to happen and Mele was sent back to Tonga, her not being with him would cause his death.
The Langis say they were devastated when they were told by Immigration NZ that their marriage wasn’t real.
In a statement, Immigration NZ says it has sympathy for the couple’s plight and is keen to resolve it.
However, the agency’s Richard Owen says it believes it made the right decision to reject Mele’s application in 2021.
He lists advice for the couple, such as providing documentation showing they are in a stable relationship and applying under section 61 of the Immigration Act — all of which their lawyer has already tried to do and been rejected.
Soane says these sorts of decisions are not unusual.
“They have taken someone who was law-abiding, who had a valid visa and turned her into someone who is unlawful, and all they need to do is serve her a deportation order, put her in the cells and put her on the plane.”
