Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Immigration NZ must account for the Dawn Raids apology in policy, and deportations should only occur in extreme cases, the minister has warned.
With the Green Party also repeating calls for an amnesty for overstayers, Acting Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni says the only acceptable reason for such raids would be a threat to public safety.
It follows RNZ reports of a Pacific overstayer being detained in a dawn raid in South Auckland last week, less than two years after the government delivered an official apology for the infamous dawn raids of the 1970s.
Immigration Minister Michael Wood this afternoon confirmed he had sent a letter of expectations to the agency's chief executive "setting out the government's expectation that these sorts of deportations should only occur in extremis - in circumstances that absolutely require it".
"We want Immigration New Zealand to take into account fully the government's apology for the dawn raids and to reflect that in their operational policy."
He told reporters he first became aware of such cases after this particular example, and authorisation of an "out-of-hours operation" should be a "very, very rare event that has a high level of justification".
"I've also required that authorisation for those is escalated to the deputy secretary of Immigration."
Sepuloni said the only justifiable reason she had seen for carrying them out would be in cases of threats to public safety.
"That is certainly the one rationale that I have seen that is fair and reasonable and I haven't seen any other rationales."
Carmel Sepuloni, who is acting Prime Minister while Chris Hipkins is in the UK for the coronation of King Charles III. Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Immigration NZ this morning said less than 3 percent - about 18 or 19 - of the people it "interacted with" in the eight months since last July had been contacted out of hours.
Wood's office confirmed the ethnic breakdown of those 19 cases this afternoon: 10 Chinese people, four Indians, two Tongans, one Samoan, one Malaysian and one Indonesian.
The first Pasifika Deputy Prime Minister, Sepuloni said she was "highly concerned, really disappointed" by the latest case.
"We do not want Immigration New Zealand acting in a way that they're retraumatising our Pacific community, so it is good that the minister has come out as strongly as what he has.
"It's really important that we draw a line in the sand here."
Tongan matāpule (talking chief or herald) based in New Zealand, Pakilau Manase Lua, told RNZ the Pacific community was "up in arms" about the case.
"This is a complete betrayal of our community, it needs to stop. Do something, don't just sit there and watch as history unfolds.
"Being woken up in the early morning by police, treating the father like he was a drug dealer or a common criminal? You know, this guy didn't do anything wrong apart from not completing a form to extend his stay. That's basically it."
Pakilau Manase Lua says the continuation of dawn raids tactics less than two years after an official apology from Parliament is a "complete betrayal" of the Pacific community. Photo: RNZ Pacific/Lydia Lewis
The discovery the dawn raids tactics were continuing made the government's apology look like mere lip service, he said.
"Here they are again talking the talk and not actually doing anything about it. A huge problem that they actually apologised for - not just recently, less that two years ago. What was that apology all about? ... it was all for show, sadly.
"At the moment they've done nothing so its all lip service. And the sad thing is, our Pacific community are so loyal, our people are the ones who vote Labour in - Labour needs to remember that."
Green MP Teanau Tuiono said Immigration NZ needed to show it had learnt from the apology.
Green MP Teanau Tuiono Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
"When you apologise for something, what it means is that you don't do it again," he said.
"I do want to acknowledge the trauma for this man's family and in particular for his children, and acknowledge that actually there's still families that hold the scars from the dawn raids from 50 years ago."
Calls for amnesty for overstayers
Pakilau said the government needed to stop talking, investigating and asking questions - it was time to act.
"It was a good thing to do the apology, but if it had come with a pathway to residency and actual amnesty at least that would have been more substantial."
The Green Party has been calling for such an amnesty for overstayers for years. MP Ricardo Menéndez March said such a move would benefit New Zealand.
"Raids have been happening for quite some time and all this practice does is it creates a culture of fear where overstayers don't feel like they can approach public services or be part of the community.
"This is why an amnesty is urgently needed on top of ending this practice.
Green MP Ricardo Menéndez March has long been leading a campaign for an amnesty for overstayers. Photo: Phil Smith
"An amnesty would support lifting people out of exploitative conditions which we know is the goal from the government. Overstayers have to work often under the table to make ends meet, and are fearful of approaching public services when disaster strikes, like with the floods.
"It would enable greater social cohesion, greater participation and wellbeing for the whole country."
Wood said the matter was still being considered.
"We are taking our time to work it through. It would be a very significant undertaking. The last time one was done was 22 years ago and it does have broader implications within the immigration system - but it is an issue that I want to give certainty on one way or the other quite soon.
National's deputy leader Nicola Willis said she had not spoken to caucus members about such a move and the government would need to make a case for it if one was proposed.
"It is important that we have fair rules so that people aren't encouraged to jump the queue, as it were, and where there are rules on immigration they're evenly and equally applied - but we should always treat everybody - particularly children - with dignity.
"Ultimately we judge governments on their actions."
