Last-chance amnesty for overstayers

By BERNARD ORSMAN and SCOTT INGLIS

Thousands of Pacific Island overstayers have a one-off chance to stay in New Zealand instead of living in fear of being deported under tough new immigration laws.

About 7000 overstayers - 3500 Samoans and Tongans and a similar number from other countries - could qualify for permanent residence under a selective amnesty announced yesterday by Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel.

A further 14,000 overstayers are not so lucky. Immigration officers will be able to detain them and put them on the first plane home without any right of appeal under the rules coming into force next month.

Ms Dalziel assured overstayers that no dawn raids like those of the late 1970s were planned. She said she would not like to see people dobbing in their neighbours.

"Well-settled" overstayers have from next month until the end of March to apply, at a cost of $500, for a two-year work permit as a prerequisite for permanent residence.

The Government defines well-settled overstayers as people who have been living in New Zealand for five years or more, have New Zealand-born children and are married or in a de facto relationship of at least two years to a New Zealand citizen or resident.

The criteria apply only to overstayers who arrived before last October 1.

People who have worked legally in New Zealand for five or more years will also be able to gain permanent residency, but not people with student permits.

Ms Dalziel said about a third of the 18,000 to 22,000 overstayers were expected to qualify. The rest had to face "very tough" new immigration laws and should leave immediately or be removed and face a ban on re-entering New Zealand.

She said the Immigration Service would continue to hold "sanctuary days," when overstayers could come forward and establish whether they qualified to stay without fear of being deported.

Prime Minister Helen Clark had little sympathy for overstayers, saying the Government would not soften the law National passed last year to deport anyone without appeal who had overstayed a permit for more than 42 days.

" People who overstay are trying to come through the back door, not the front door.

"They can't claim any social security benefits, they cannot work legally, they cannot legally access health treatment, their children cannot legally go to school. They live in limbo land."

Ms Dalziel was more conciliatory, saying it would be unfair for well-settled people to be uprooted and tossed out when they had worked, paid taxes, brought up children and contributed to the community.

Pacific Island and ethnic groups welcomed the Government's action.

Tongan lawyer Mele Tuilotolava, who focuses on immigration, said the Government had to be congratulated for listening to the concerns of Pacific Island groups about the draconian effects of the new immigration laws and allowing well-settled overstayers to stay.

"I think it would have been more fair if the time limit was two years, because people who have been here two years and have lived and worked in New Zealand have become detached from their links in Tonga and have very little family to go back to."

The immigration spokesman for the Ethnic Council, Ganges Singh, said the criteria for overstayers rewarded people who had worked hard and contributed.

The National Party's Pacific Affairs spokesman, Arthur Anae, said it was a chance for many Pacific Islanders to clear the slate.

But NZ First leader Winston Peters said: "These people came here with an undertaking to go, and they didn't go."

One overstayer who plans to take advantage of the amnesty is a 35-year-old Tongan man, Robert. He is married to a New Zealand resident from Niue, but for 14 years has been a virtual prisoner in Auckland.

He walks to work and walks straight home. He avoids public places and making friends, and does his best to remain anonymous. Every time he sees a police car, he is afraid.

"I feel scared, everywhere I go. I don't feel safe or normal like everyone else."

Robert, who spoke to the Herald on condition his identity was kept secret, is scared his employer will find he is an overstayer and fire him.

He arrived from Tonga in 1986 after the rest of his family - four sisters, two brothers and mother - came to New Zealand.

The others are in the country legally, but Robert has had problems. He has twice applied for a two-year work permit but the first time, in 1991, his lawyer moved away without finalising his case, and the second time Immigration never got back to him.

Now he hopes to live a more normal life in New Zealand -"I don't want to go home because there's nobody there for me."

You can contact the Immigration Service on 300-5855, or 0800 731- 731 from outside Auckland, or visit www.immigration.govt.nz