"Take me home": Sri Lankan woman stranded for three years on tiny Pacific island

When Ruchira Ranasinghe left Sri Lanka nearly a decade ago, she never imagined she would one day be stuck on a small island group in the South Pacific. Now 50, she has been stranded in the Cook Islands for three years. In tears, she says she is desperate to return home, and is willing to be taken back in handcuffs, tied up, even gagged.

Her hope had been to settle in New Zealand. After seeking asylum there, she says, an immigration consultant advised her to leave temporarily and apply for a work visa. But after she travelled to the Cook Islands her application was rejected, and by leaving she had breached the conditions of her asylum-based visa.

New Zealand is refusing a transit visa for her journey home, and Australia has also refused her a visa. Even Tahiti and Hawaii, reachable by air from the Cook Islands, require visas, and she must give biometric details in New Zealand before those applications can be considered. She has no practical way off the island.

"My only son is getting married in November and I want to be there. My mother keeps going in and out of hospital worrying about me," she said through tears. "I will do whatever they tell me. I just need to get home."

She left Sri Lanka in 2018 after her small garment business collapsed, and went to Hong Kong for domestic care work. In December 2022 she travelled to New Zealand on a two-month visitor visa, and applied for asylum as it was about to expire, citing threats from creditors in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was taking every possible step to help her, working with embassy officials in Wellington and New Zealand authorities. But her brother said: "We have tried every way we can. So far there has been no progress."