{"id":1565638,"date":"2024-03-21T10:03:10","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T10:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=98608"},"modified":"2024-03-21T10:03:10","modified_gmt":"2024-03-21T10:03:10","slug":"nz-government-urged-to-help-evacuate-palestinians-from-war-on-gaza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2024\/03\/21\/nz-government-urged-to-help-evacuate-palestinians-from-war-on-gaza\/","title":{"rendered":"NZ government urged to help evacuate Palestinians from war on Gaza"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Katie Scotcher<\/a>, RNZ News<\/a> political reporter<\/em><\/p>\n The New Zealand government is being urged to create a special humanitarian visa for Palestinians in Gaza with ties to this country.<\/p>\n More than 30 organisations — including World Vision, Save the Children and Greenpeace — have sent an open letter to ministers, calling on them to step up support.<\/p>\n They also want the government to help evacuate Palestinians with ties to New Zealand from Gaza, and provide them with resettlement assistance.<\/p>\n Their appeal is backed by Palestinian New Zealander Muhammad Dahlen, whose family is living in fear in Rafah after being forced to move there from northern Gaza.<\/p>\n His ex-wife and two children (who have had visitor visas since December) were now living in a garage with his mother, sisters and nieces who do not have visas.<\/p>\n “There is no food, there is no power . . .\u00a0 it is a really hard situation to be living in,” he told RNZ Morning Report<\/i>.<\/p>\n If his family could receive visas to come to New Zealand “it literally can be the difference between life and death”.<\/p>\n ‘Everyone susceptible to death’<\/strong> Dahlen said New Zealand had a tradition of accepting refugees from areas of conflict, including Sudan, Ukraine, Afghanistan and Syria.<\/p>\n “So why is this not the same?”<\/p>\n He appealed to Immigration Minister Erica Stanford and Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters to intervene and approach the Egyptian government.<\/p>\n “We need these people out,” he said.<\/p>\n “Please give them visas; this is a first step. This is something super super difficult and huge and requires ministerial intervention.”<\/p>\n Border permission needed<\/strong> Egypt had concerns about taking in too many refugees from Gaza so the New Zealand government would need to provide assurances flights had been organised.<\/p>\n If the government offered a charter flight to bring refugees to this country, “that would be amazing”.<\/p>\n World Vision spokesperson Rebekah Armstrong said the government had responded with immigration support in other humanitarian emergencies.<\/p>\n “We provided humanitarian visas for Ukrainians when their lives were torn apart by war, and we assisted Afghans to leave and resettle in this country when the Taliban returned to power. The situation for vulnerable Palestinians is no different.<\/p>\n “Palestinians are living in a perilous environment, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced from their homes; children and families starving with literally nothing to eat; and healthcare and medical treatment nearly impossible to access,” Armstrong said.<\/p>\n This is not a detainment camp in World War II, nor a prison in the Holocaust, this is Gaza in 2024. A chilling reminder that history repeats.<\/p>\n A holocaust is happening right before our eyes and the world is silent. pic.twitter.com\/Y4SgE1yjji<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Mohamad Safa (@mhdksafa) March 10, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
\nWith Israel making it clear it still intended to send ground forces into Rafah “everyone is susceptible to death and at least we would be saving some lives”.<\/p>\n
\nAt the Gaza-Egypt border potential refugees needed to gain the permission of officials from both Israel and Egypt.<\/p>\n\n