Stranded on the Cook Islands: Asylum Seeker’s Visa Woes Keep Her From Returning Home
A Sri Lankan asylum seeker has been stuck in the Cook Islands for three years after New Zealand refused her a transit visa.
Wow—a story that reads like a drama but is happening right now on a tiny Pacific archipelago.
Ruchira Ranasingha, 50, left Sri Lanka in 2018 after her small T‑shirt factory closed and she fell into debt. She moved to Hong Kong to work as a domestic caregiver before heading to New Zealand in December 2022 on a two‑month visit visa.
When her visa neared expiry, an immigration interpreter helped her apply for asylum, citing threats from lenders back home. She was granted an “open work visa” for asylum seekers, allowing her to work for almost any employer for a year.
She found restaurant work, and the employer agreed to sponsor an employment visa that she believed would give longer‑term stability. However, asylum seekers cannot apply for other visas while their asylum applications are processed, so the employment visa was declined.
Ranasingha then contacted Immigration & Secretarial Services. Email evidence seen by the BBC shows the firm’s manager, Sylviane Gallant, promised to start a fresh employment‑visa application once Ranasingha left New Zealand.
Following that advice, she travelled to the Cook Islands, a New Zealand‑associated territory, to apply for the visa from overseas. Her application was rejected, and by leaving New Zealand she breached the terms of her asylum‑linked visa.
Now New Zealand refuses to issue a transit visa that would let her fly home to Sri Lanka, and Australia also says no. The only other international routes from the Cook Islands—Tahiti and Hawaii—require biometric data to be submitted in New Zealand before any visa can be processed.
As a result, Ranasingha has been stuck on the Cook Islands for three years with no feasible way to leave.
She says her only child is getting married in November, and she wants to be there for the wedding. Her mother, she adds, is frequently in and out of hospital, worried about her daughter’s situation.
Ranasingha told the BBC through tears that she will do anything required to return home.
This case highlights the complex challenges faced by asylum seekers navigating visa rules across multiple jurisdictions.
