New details have emerged about a Sri Lankan woman stranded in the Cook Islands for nearly three years, with the BBC revealing how immigration advice and repeated visa rejections have left her unable to return home.
In a new report, BBC identified the woman as 50-year-old Ruchira Ranasingha, who left Sri Lanka in 2018 after financial difficulties forced her to close her small T-shirt factory.
She initially moved to Hong Kong to work as a caregiver before travelling to New Zealand in December 2022, where she subsequently applied for asylum.
According to the BBC, Ranasingha later received advice from an immigration consultancy to leave New Zealand temporarily and apply for an employment visa from overseas.
She travelled to the Cook Islands, but her employment visa application was rejected. Leaving New Zealand had also breached the conditions of her existing asylum-linked visa.
The BBC reported that three applications for New Zealand transit visas and four applications for Australian transit visas were rejected, leaving her without a practical route back to Sri Lanka.
Her attempts to travel through Hawaii or Tahiti have also failed because of visa biometric requirements.
Ranasingha, whose only son is getting married in November, expressed her desperation to return home.
“I will do anything they ask of me – I just want to go home,” she told the BBC.
The report also revealed that a hotel in the Cook Islands has allowed her to stay free of charge, while local residents have provided food, clothing and other assistance.
Immigration New Zealand told the BBC that her transit visa applications were rejected because authorities were not satisfied she genuinely intended to transit through the country.
In a significant development, Sri Lanka’s Foreign Ministry confirmed to the BBC that it was taking steps to facilitate her return.
The Ministry said officials at the Sri Lankan High Commission in Wellington were working with New Zealand authorities to find a solution.
Meanwhile, her family has expressed growing concern over her prolonged ordeal and its impact on her well-being. (Newswire)
Read the full BBC report: I’ve been stuck on a tiny Pacific island for years and can’t get a transit visa to fly home.