I've been stuck on a tiny Pacific island for years and can't get a transit visa to fly home
Ruchira Ranasingha, fifty, has spent three years in the Cook Islands, unable to secure a transit visa that would let her fly home to Sri Lanka.
Ruchira Ranasingha, fifty, left Sri Lanka in twenty eighteen after her small T-shirt factory closed, hoping to build a new life in New Zealand. Three years on, she is still waiting in the Cook Islands, with no route home.
After seeking asylum in New Zealand, she followed advice to leave the country briefly so she could apply for a work visa. Once in the Cook Islands, that application was rejected, and leaving New Zealand had broken the terms of her asylum-linked visa.
New Zealand has since refused her a transit visa home, saying it is not satisfied she genuinely intends to transit. Australia has refused as well. The only other flights out of the Cook Islands go to Tahiti and Hawaii, but both require biometric information to be given in New Zealand first.
She now stays in hotel staff accommodation, with local people providing food and clothing, and says the uncertainty is affecting her health. Specialists say her case shows how one piece of bad immigration advice can leave a person with nowhere to go.
Reporting based on coverage from BBC News.