Editorial: Send the deportees directly to home

Christmas Island Detention Centre where hundreds of kiwis are being held.

Australia are cleaning out unwanted Kiwi criminals from the nation's cupboard.

Kiwis who have served more than one year in prison are being deported.

After sending Kiwi criminals home at a rate of five people a month, more than 10 a month have been arriving in the past three months.

Northlander Trent Kaaka, 26, is one of them - he landed in Auckland yesterday with $250, and eight nights' accommodation.

Kaaka had served two years in an Australian prison for armed robbery and possession of drugs.

In many quarters, there will be little sympathy for Kaaka for being deported.

However, after serving his jail term, the first-time offender was then held for another seven months in an Australian immigration detention centre before his deportation.

That's at least an extra year added on to his sentence.

Kaaka is from Te Kao and is worried he may not find work there.

Ironically, Kaaka's prison lag included rehabilitation, which must have cost the Australian Government thousands of dollars, to help him find work.

But the rehab was geared toward working in mines. What a waste of time that was.

Australia's 2001 immigration legislation dictates that New Zealanders can live and work permanently in Australia but never become Australians.

The legislation was largely meant to stop Kiwis from heading across the ditch and signing up for the dole. Fair enough.

But detaining Kiwis for seven months after they have served their prison time isn't fair.

Nor is it smart - who is paying for the detention centre costs? Australia.

By all means deport but don't prolong the process.

Send them home straight away so they can get on with their lives, and the Aussies can get them off their taxpayer-funded payroll. Isn't that what this is all about?