Stranded in the Cook Islands for Three Years: Sri Lankan Ruchira, 50, Cannot Fly Home Without a Transit Visa

When Ruchira Ranasingha left Sri Lanka, she could never have imagined she would end up stranded on a tiny archipelago in the South Pacific. The 50-year-old has now been stuck in the Cook Islands for three years. She tells the BBC she is desperate to go back to Sri Lanka and has even offered to go handcuffed, bound and gagged.

Ranasingha had been hoping to settle in New Zealand. After seeking asylum there, she says she followed an immigration adviser's recommendation to temporarily exit the country to apply for a work visa. But once in the Cook Islands, her application was rejected. And by leaving New Zealand, she had breached the terms of her existing asylum-linked visa.

Now New Zealand is refusing to issue her a transit visa that would allow her to fly home to Sri Lanka. Australia is refusing too. The only other international destinations she can fly to from the Cook Islands — Tahiti and Hawaii — require her to give biometric information in New Zealand before any visa can be processed. As a result, she has no feasible way of leaving.

Ranasingha says her son — her only child — is getting married in November and she really wants to be there for his wedding. Her mother is so worried about what has happened to her that she is constantly in and out of hospital. She says she will do anything they ask of her — she just wants to go home.

Ranasingha left Sri Lanka in 2018 after being forced to close her small T-shirt factory due to a loss of business. Struggling to repay loans, she moved to Hong Kong to work as a domestic caregiver looking after elderly people and children. Her brother tells BBC Sinhala she had come under immense financial pressure. Her husband was a drug addict who died about seven years ago, he adds.

In December 2022, Ranasingha headed to New Zealand, where she says she lived with a cousin on a two-month visit visa. As it came close to expiring, she says an immigration interpreter helped her apply for asylum on the grounds she was facing threats from lenders in Sri Lanka. She was granted an asylum seeker open work visa, enabling her to work for almost any employer for a year. She found a job at a restaurant, she says, which ultimately agreed to sponsor an employment visa, which she believed would give her longer-term stability. But as asylum seekers generally cannot apply for other visas while their applications are processed in New Zealand, it was declined.

That is when she got in touch with Immigration & Secretarial Services, a firm she claims told her a fresh application for an employment visa could be made from overseas. Email correspondence the BBC has seen shows its manager, Sylviane Gallant, saying she would initiate the process as soon as Ranasingha had left the country. So she booked a short stay in the Cook Islands while the application was made.

She was again refused the employment visa. And by leaving New Zealand, she had violated the terms of her existing visa. New Zealand authorities made it clear they would not grant her any future visas. Ranasingha says Gallant claimed to make various interventions on her behalf, including writing to politicians including Chris Penk, New Zealand's then-immigration minister. But ultimately, Ranasingha says Gallant admitted the situation was her fault and told her there was nothing more she could do, and that she was better off going home.

But when she turned up at the airport with an Air New Zealand ticket to Sri Lanka in hand, she was told she could not board the flight without a New Zealand transit visa. Three applications for a New Zealand transit visa were rejected; authorities said they were not convinced she would leave New Zealand. Four applications for Australian transit visas were rejected too.

In one of its rejections, New Zealand suggested she explore other routes. But both the US state of Hawaii and the French Polynesian island of Tahiti told her she would need to provide biometric information before any visa could be processed — and that could only be done in person in New Zealand. Her latest application to New Zealand, which included all the details of the alternative routes she had been trying, as well as her son's upcoming wedding and her mother's failing health, was also rejected.

On a collection of islands known for their sweeping sandy beaches and rugged volcanic peaks, just four hours from Auckland, Ranasingha has been an involuntary guest. She says her hotel lets her stay free of charge in its staff accommodation and friendly locals provide her with food and clothing. One of the hotel directors even gave her a sewing machine, she says, enabling her to make a small income.

Ranasingha says the stress is impacting her health and that she is scared something is going to happen to her. Auckland-based immigration law specialist Alastair McClymont says she received terrible advice which certainly could not have come from a genuine immigration lawyer, pointing to an industry of so-called immigration consultants who charge people to lodge applications without fully understanding the risks involved. Ranasingha says she parted with thousands of New Zealand dollars in fees to Immigration & Secretarial Services. The BBC reached out to Gallant but did not receive a response.

McClymont suggests New Zealand authorities will not grant the transit visa because, as far as they are concerned, she has no intention of returning to Sri Lanka, having made an asylum claim saying her life was in danger there. New Zealand co-ordinates with its neighbour Australia, which means Australia will not want to let her transit either, he says, and France and the US are likely to reach similar conclusions. To leave, she is going to have to transit through somewhere, and no one will want to take the risk, he says.

Immigration New Zealand told the BBC it had received multiple transit visa applications from Ranasingha — all declined, as it was not satisfied she has a genuine intention to transit through New Zealand. When asked why one could not be granted even when Ranasingha had offered to be handcuffed and escorted, a representative of the immigration minister's office said those measures do not prevent individuals from making an asylum claim. Australia's interior ministry said it would not comment on individual cases, and that any non-citizens travelling to Australia must satisfy the requirements of the Migration Act 1958 and the Migration Regulations 1994.

Meanwhile, Ranasingha's family have been trying to see if the Sri Lankan government can help. Her brother says they have tried every possible avenue but so far have not been able to get anywhere. Sri Lanka's foreign ministry told the BBC it was taking all necessary steps to facilitate her return to Sri Lanka from the Cook Islands, and that officials of the Sri Lankan High Commission in Wellington, as well as the relevant New Zealand authorities, are working closely with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the matter. Her brother tells BBC Sinhala that her mental state is not good.