Split families slam Immigration Minister over Karel Sroubek decision

Tuesday, 30 October 2018

Czech national Karel Sroubek, also known as Jan Antolik, was granted permanent residency, despite being in prison for importing MDMA.

Families split up in residency battles with Immigration New Zealand (INZ) are outraged at Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway's decision to grant permanent residency to Karel Sroubek, a drug dealer serving jail time. Here are some of their stories.

'To fully understand Immigration New Zealand,' Cherie Smith says, 'you need to be caught in the web that it spins.'

Smith's husband, Majdi Abed-Rabbo, has yet to meet their baby daughter, 14-month-old Farasha.

Cherie Smith, her husband Majdi Abed-Rabbo, and their daughter, Farasha, are divided by an INZ decision.

The couple met in 2010 and married three years later. She said since then, they had been fighting for the right to continue their marriage.

Karel Sroubek fled to New Zealand with a friend's passport in 2003. He claimed he was on the run from corrupt cops after witnessing a murder. Under the name Jan Antolik he built a new life as a businessman, a representative-level kickboxer, and a Hells Angels associate.

* Jailed drug-dealer escapes deportation as Government grants him NZ residency

* Karel Sroubek's 'strict conditions' to remain in NZ**

'I was shocked at the decision for Karel. I think it is really unfair,' she said.

'The government really need to focus on reuniting split families. I just don't know what to do any more.'

Smith's partner overstayed, and, unaware of the consequences, tried to start his own business without applying for a business visa. He left New Zealand with a two-year ban on entering the country.

'This ban was a fair decision for a person who did not seek proper counsel into how the visa law is interpreted,' Smith conceded.

Smith and Abed-Rabbo's daughter, Farasha.

The couple lived in Jordan together with Abed-Rabbo's family. Smith went to university while her partner worked.

'I would fly back and work and pay my student loan payments that were required. Then I would return home to Jordan, to my husband. I did this on a regular basis, just as a mine worker flies in and out for their job.

'We did not think that this would make us not in a genuine and stable relationship.'

In December 2016, they were excited to discover they were expecting their first child, and applied for a partnership visa to New Zealand.

'I returned to New Zealand while we were doing our partnership visa, as my next lot of student loan payments were due,' Smith said.

The visa was declined, with their relationship deemed not genuine and stable, Smith said.

It was also noted that Smith's partner had broken the law in New Zealand and would probably overstay.

Smith had their daughter in New Zealand. The couple applied for a visitor visa with the aim of 'reuniting our family together for our child's first birthday'.

The plan was for Smith's husband to return to Jordan after the visit, to prove that he could be of good character and not overstay.

The application was declined because he had previously overstayed and tried to start a business, she said.

'There was barely an acknowledgement for the purpose of the visit: to meet his child and spend family time together.'

Smith and Farasha were now living in Queenstown, while Abed-Rabbo remains in Jordan.

'Our child has the right to two parents and the first two years of life is very important to health and well being,' she said.

Richelle Sexton and her partner Gurdev, who has yet to meet their daughter.

'I will fight for as long as it takes to reunite us as a family.'

'SHE HAS YET TO MEET HER FATHER'

Baby Ashlyn is almost 1 year old and, like Farasha, she hasn't met her dad.

Ashlyn's mother, Hamilton woman Richelle Sexton, is raising her alone. She says her partner, Gurdev, has exhausted his options for returning to New Zealand. Sexton is not currently in a position to move to India.

Gurdev first came here as a student in 2013.

Richelle and Gurdev's daughter, Ashlyn, is almost 1 year old.

When he applied for a new work visa in 2016, INZ discovered that he had breached the conditions of his student visa years earlier.

Sexton said this was because as an employee he was exploited and forced to work longer hours than his visa permitted.

His work visa was declined at the end on 2016. In April 2017 they received the news that Gurdev's request for intervention from the Associate Minister of Immigration had not been successful.

While waiting for that decision, Gurdev was issued with a deportation order.

Chris Kelly, his wife Rose and her two kids, are divided between the Philippines and New Zealand.

'This was really distressing for us; we knew that Gurdev would now have to return to India, there were no other options,' said Sexton.

She found out in May 2017 she was pregnant and gave birth early this year.

Sexton has been left to raise her baby daughter, and a 9-year-boy from a previous relationship, while Gurdev remains in India.

He had applied for a residency visa 'because we want to be together, because I need him and most of all so he can meet Ashlyn and she can get to know her daddy'.

The application was unsuccessful. The couple were about six weeks short of meeting the requirement of living together for 12 months, said Sexton.

'Surely the fact that he has missed the birth and first year of his daughter's life is punishment enough?

'He is not a risk to the public, unlike drug smugglers, and if he were here and working it would relinquish the need for me to be on a benefit.'

'WE NEED A VOICE'

Chris Kelly's wife and her two kids are in the Philippines. If they lose their latest legal fight against Immigration New Zealand, Kelly says he'll have to move there too.

The couple has been together for eight years and Kelly said he was the only father his wife's children had ever known.

He said he was not able to sponsor his wife's residency application in 2014 because about 20 years ago he sponsored his ex-partner.

Their application was currently before the Immigration Protection Tribunal at a legal cost of more than $20,000.

Last year he travelled to see his family every three months, but a change in job early this year meant he had not been able to see his family since January.

'I am hoping to bring them here for Christmas on a limited visa which my mother has had to sponsor them for,' the Auckland man said.

'If our marriage was going to fail it surely would have done so by now.

'And yet, if we lose the appeal, I'll be taking the best part of a quarter of a million dollars to go live in the Philippines, when both my wife and I are capable and eager to contribute to New Zealand. How does that make sense?'

Kelly called Lees-Galloway's decision to grant Sroubek residency 'utterly deplorable'.

'Family used to be the foundation of society. Not any more, it would seem. We need more of a voice against this mighty behemoth of a government department.'