“A Session on Immigration” was an event with a purpose to provide a platform to the migrants who are adversely affected by the broken immigration system in New Zealand. This took place on Sunday, 1st August at Balmoral Community Centre in Sandringham, Auckland. The date of our event was decided few weeks prior to the Dawn Raids apology by PM Jacinda Ardern at Auckland Town Hall.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!The Indian News NZ would like to inform you that there were whatsoever no intentions to interfere with the historic apology as the dates of the Dawn Raid’s apology got rescheduled only after we decided to go ahead with our immigration event.
We saw some very prominent MPs from different political parties grace our event like Erica Stanford and Chris Bishop from National Party, David Seymour and Dr. James McDowall from ACT Party, Ricardo Menendez March from Greens Party and two former MPs, Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi (National Party) and Mahesh Bindra (NZ First Party) coming to the event.
The invite was also sent to Labour Party Ministers and MPs, however, we received apologies from all the Labour Party leaders citing reasons, mostly of some prior commitments.
The event turned out to be a very engaging one and all the leaders spelled out their party’s policies regarding immigration and migrants’ plight especially in the changed post-Covid scenario.
A gruelling question & answer session just after the leaders’ speeches, brought the struggle and stark realities before the leaders that migrants are facing. Some prominent Immigration lawyers and experts namely Katy Armstrong, Arrun Hunt, Pooja Sundar & Stewart Dalley were present at the event and took an initiative to personally address any question from the audience that required their expertise. There were stories of some migrants shared with the leaders that not only touched an emotional angle but also bought up humanitarian crises in the country because of broken immigration system.
The mix and mingle session after the end of the formal discussion and speeches gave everyone an opportunity to know one another, discuss their situation over a cuppa.
One of the top migrant’s support crusaders #reunitefamiliesnz members was also present at the event. One of its main protagonists Cynthia Garton flew from Christchurch to attend this event.
The Indian News NZ’s initiative was obvious, it was to provide a forum to migrants to share their grievances with leaders who were more than engaging with the community, at the same time encouraging and supportive to the migrant population in the country. We, therefore, appreciate the efforts and thank each one for coming and making this event a great example of kindness and oneness.
