A 7.7-magnitude quake flattened buildings across Myanmar on March 28, killing more than 3,400 people, making thousands more homeless, and worsening an already complex humanitarian situation amid civil war. Photo: SAI AUNG MAIN / AFP
It could take 10 years to clear a refugee visa waiting queue - but those applicants have already been waiting for seven years, and some have families in danger.
When Dawt Tha Thang arrived in New Zealand in 2010, she was with her husband and five of her children. Within weeks, she gave birth to her youngest.
But her eldest daughter stayed behind in Myanmar. She had just married and was pregnant.
The Thangs are Christian Chins and as a minority, have faced persecution - it is how they became refugees - but over the past several years things have become even more dangerous in Myanmar. First, in 2021 there was a military coup and the country descended into civil war. Then, this March, there was an earthquake that killed thousands.
"Myanmar as a whole is a pretty awful situation, with the civil war and the earthquake and forced conscription, but this is a family that ... also comes from a persecuted minority. They have been shaken down in [the capital city] Yangon, ie the army comes round and demands money or they will be sent to jail. They're moving every second or third night to stay away from the army," says Caroline Forsyth, who is friends with the family and speaks on their behalf to The Detail.
Under the Refugee Family Support Category (RFSC), the Thangs can apply to bring their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren here to join them. And the last time applications opened, they did. That was in 2017. They have been closed since then.
Right now, the queue is 4190 people long, with only a few applicants coming off that list every year.
But the scale of the problem is much bigger, because it does not represent all the people who have not even had a chance to apply.
In today's episode of The Detail, Jay Marlowe - professor of social work at Auckland University and co-author with the Red Cross of a report on the RFSC - explains how the category works - and does not.
"It's not our position that the RFSC is not working or is absolutely broken... for me fundamentally it's about ensuring that we protect what exists but also to recognise that it is under need of reform," he says.
"It's not irreparably broken, but it does need reform."
Under the RFSC there are two tiers. Tier One is for people who have come here as refugees who have no other adult family in the country, and Tier Two is for people who do have adult family - like the Thangs, who are a married couple and now have adult children - but have other adult family who they would like to reunite with as well.
Tier One is prioritised, because people applying in that category do not have any support here. That category remains open for applications, but Tier Two has only opened for applications twice. The first time was in 2012, and the second was in 2017. Both times, it was only for a few days, and Forsyth and Marlowe say the system was inundated with applications.
There are only 600 places a year open for the RFSC, and because Tier One is always open and those applications are prioritised, very few Tier Two applicants get through.
This leaves people like the Thangs in a holding pattern, unsure of when - if ever - they will be able to reunite with their families.
In their case, their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren are hungry, they have lost family members to military violence, and the children can not go to school. They have attempted to escape to Thailand, where they'd be able to register as refugees, but haven't been able to.
Last month, Labour MP Phil Twyford asked Associate Immigration Minister Casey Costello and General Manager, Refugee and Migrant Service Fiona Whiteridge, for an update on progress.
Whiteridge said that "in order to clear that tier two queue, and it obviously is all dependent on how many more people applying to tier one, it would take us between eight to 10 years".
Marlowe says there is clear research that reuniting people with their families has a broad range of benefits and the government should think about this category not just in terms of what it costs, but also what it might save in the long term.
"Not only does it make sense to reunite families ... but it might even make dollars and cents.
"Family reunification is often one of the most important, if not the most important, topic that people want to address."
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