Stranded for three years: a Sri Lankan woman can’t leave the Cook Islands because no one will let her change planes

L2Who’s affected

Ranasingha, her only son, and her mother, who she says is “constantly in and out of hospital.” Her brother told BBC Sinhala she once said that if they won’t bring her home alive, “they might at least repatriate her body.”

L3Why it’s quiet

Analysis · OVERLOOKED It is one person on a small island, first reported by Cook Islands News in early October — the kind of story that never travels.

L4Deeper impact

Auckland immigration lawyer Alastair McClymont says she got “terrible advice” and points to “so-called immigration consultants.” He says New Zealand won’t grant transit because she claimed asylum saying her life was in danger in Sri Lanka, and “no-one will want to take the risk.” Immigration New Zealand told the BBC it was “not satisfied she has a genuine intention to transit”; RNZ says it declined further comment citing privacy.

L5Full context

She left Sri Lanka in 2018 after closing her T-shirt factory, worked in Hong Kong as a caregiver, went to New Zealand in December 2022 and claimed asylum over threats from lenders. She says a firm, Immigration & Secretarial Services, told her to apply for a work visa from overseas; she went to the Cook Islands (arriving November 2023, per Cook Islands News), was refused, and leaving broke her asylum-linked visa. A Rarotonga hotel houses her free and a director gave her a sewing machine. Sri Lanka’s foreign ministry says it is “taking all necessary steps” to get her home. The firm’s manager, Sylviane Gallant, did not respond to the BBC.

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