Lawyers say private plane needed to remove Sri Lankan girl

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Lawyers battling to save a sexually abused Sri Lankan girl from being kicked out of New Zealand believe the Government may have to charter a private plane if it intends banishing her today.

The Immigration Service denies the 16-year-old is unfit to travel, and said last night that it was confident in the ability of the commercial carrier which brought her to New Zealand in 2002 with her grandmother to meet an international obligation to repatriate the pair.

But the girl's lawyers insist she will be a security risk if she and her grandmother are sent packing on a commercial flight, and are arranging for a senior psychiatrist to update assessments last year which found her unfit to travel because of suicidal tendencies.

The girl, whose name is suppressed and who fled to New Zealand after years of rape and abuse by uncles on both sides of her family, lost a High Court appeal last week against plans to remove the pair.

She and her maternal grandmother, one of whose sons was among the abusers, initially sought refugee status by giving the authorities a fictional account of persecution in Sri Lanka's civil war.

They have been held in custody at the Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre since reaching New Zealand.

Associate Immigration Minister Damien O'Connor is sticking by his refusal to allow them to stay in this country on humanitarian grounds, after the Refugee Status Appeals Authority found they did not qualify as refugees.

But lawyers Carole Curtis and Philippa Cunningham say two psychiatrists who examined the girl last year were left in no doubt she was sexually abused, and are arranging for an urgent reassessment by one of them, Auckland Hospital consultant Karl Jansen.

The Immigration Service will not disclose its timetable, but lawyers say it wants to remove the girl today and that she risks death in Sri Lanka from relatives who accuse her of bringing shame on their family.

Amnesty International is also investigating her case. Executive director Ced Simpson said yesterday that it was examining whether sufficient consideration was given to her vulnerability as a child.

Mrs Cunningham said she was concerned at alleged incorrect advice from a nurse at the refugee centre that a Counties-Manukau District Health Board mental health team had found her fit to fly after assessing her on Thursday.

"I have seen their report and it paints a very bleak picture."

She had been unable to find out what standard of medical certificate the Government might rely on to evict the girl, and which flight she might leave on.

Carole Curtis said she understood the pilot would have the final say on whether it was safe to have the girl on board, and believed the Government might have to charter a private aircraft at huge expense.

"There's no telling what she may do in an emergency - whether she will be able to pull down the oxygen mask when told to - and grandma's pretty much of a mess as well."

Mrs Cunningham said the girl's plight had evoked a "huge emotional response" both from other residents of the refugee centre and from members of the public, including two people who had made separate offers to adopt her.

A Counties-Manukau official responsible for the mental health team was unavailable to discuss its assessment and a spokeswoman for Mr O'Connor said he had nothing to add to an earlier statement that he had considered all available information.

Immigration Service spokesman Brett Solvander said the organisation was confident she was fit to fly based on "health reports" but he had no details of these.

He was unable for security reasons to identify the airline or departure time for the girl's removal.