Abused girl to be deported as soon as ticket issued

9.30am

A sexually abused Sri Lankan girl will be deported as soon as the flight arrangements are finalised, despite a last-ditch battle to keep her here, the Immigration Service said today.

The service said it would rely on its own report that she was mentally fit to fly and not on a report from an Auckland consultant that she could be a risk on an airplane and should not leave the country.

Lawyers fighting the 16-year-old's deportation order say she will head back to a horrific life if she is returned to Sri Lanka.

Lawyer Carole Curtis said she would be killed or continue to be raped by her relatives. If not, she faced a life of prostitution or the prospect of suicide to end her torment.

Ms Curtis said a psychiatric report she received today from Auckland Hospital consultant Dr Karl Jansen was quite clear she should not go back.

"She is a flight risk," she said.

"Last night I went to see her with Dr Jansen and we found a child in the most horrific state and Dr Jansen is quite clear in the report that this child should not go back," she said.

However, the Immigration Service said today it would continue to rely on its own independent report on the girl's condition and she would be deported as soon as the ticketing arrangement were finalised.

A spokesman for the service, Brett Solvander, refused to give details of her flight out of the country.

He said the service was aware of the latest report saying she was unfit to fly but would not act on it.

"This individual has had a complete and thorough professional examination by medical and psychiatric independent medical people.

"That assessment judged her fit to travel."

Mr Solvander said further action on the latest report from Dr Jansen would be made by Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel, but she had made a decision not to intervene.

Ms Curtis told Newstalk ZB today they were told by immigration officials last week the girl was due to be deported today.

"But there is a silence from the Immigration Service. We don't know when, we don't know which plane," Ms Curtis said.

The Immigration Service said last night it was confident in the ability of the airline which brought her to New Zealand in 2002 to meet an international obligation to repatriate the pair.

The girl and her grandmother said they fled to New Zealand to escape years of sexual abuse by family members.

An assessment last year found her unfit to travel because of suicidal tendencies but last week she lost a High Court appeal to stop the deportation of herself and her grandmother. Both had sought refugee status but the Refugee Status Appeals Authority found they did not qualify.

They had earlier given a false story to authorities but Ms Curtis said that was not unusual with sex abuse victims.

"Any suggestion of going back to Sri Lanka and she falls apart and is exceedingly unwell."

She said the girl had a mental health disorder but would go back to the home of her abusers or a state orphanage and would get no counselling or treatment.

- NZPA