Minister looks into deporting kidnapper

Immigration Minister David Cunliffe has ordered his legal team to investigate appealing against the decision of a tribunal that allowed a convicted kidnapper to remain in New Zealand.

The Deportation Review Tribunal recently granted an appeal by 24-year-old Bo Fan, a Chinese with permanent residence, who was to be deported at the end of a three-and-a-half-year sentence for a 2002 kidnapping, assault and robbery.

The minister said yesterday that he had sought an opinion from Crown Law as to whether the tribunal's decision could be appealed to the High Court. The law only allows such appeals on "points of law, not factual issues", he said.

But the workings of the tribunal could change after a soon-to-be-completed review of the 20-year-old Immigration Act.

A discussion document on the review will be released in a few weeks.

The Deportation Review Tribunal has three members. The chairman or chairwoman must be a barrister or solicitor of not less than five years' standing. The present members are chairwoman Robyn Kreisenberg, Raewyn Weller and Claire Duncan.

Mr Cunliffe last night had no comment on the substance of the tribunal decision, as it could become sub judice if a High Court appeal was granted.

"What I will say is I have spoken to the previous minister. He said he felt that person [Bo Fan] should have been deported. As minister, I deport people every day. There are not many that I decide not to deport, and there weren't many the previous minister decided not to deport."

Counsel for Fan, immigration law specialist David Ryken, yesterday told the Herald his client was "very sorry" for his offending and wanted to put the matter behind him.

"He wants to apologise to the victim and the people of New Zealand."

Fan and his father were running "an export business" and Fan had completed a chef's course, Mr Ryken said.

His three co-offenders are understood to have served their sentences and left New Zealand.

Mr Cunliffe attacked Act MP Rodney Hide for "mistakenly or mischievously confusing the issues in the Bo Fan deportation case".

Hide had said the decision to allow Fan to remain in New Zealand was "extraordinary" and highlighted the "topsy-turvy nature of [New Zealand] immigration policy".

"Let's hope sanity prevails and we start running an immigration policy that has the best interests of New Zealand at heart and we seek the best immigrants for New Zealand.

"And convicted criminals don't fit that category," he told the Herald on Tuesday, citing South African Gavin Penfold and his family - at present threatened with removal after a work permit blunder - as the type of immigrants the country wants.

But Mr Ryken yesterday had a pop at Mr Penfold, who himself has waded into the Fan furore this week.

Mr Penfold told the Herald he believed it was "absolutely ridiculous" to allow Fan to remain in New Zealand.

"If you let those kinds of people stay ... it makes you wonder.

Mr Ryken, in a letter to the Herald, rebuked Mr Penfold for his comments and the paper for printing them, as the cases were completely different.

He said Mr Penfold would have been best advised to keep his own immigration problems quiet, rather than go to the media.

"My observation is that cases are seldom successful that go through the media, because by bringing them to the media they create wider policy considerations."

The Penfolds face removal from New Zealand after Mr Penfold neglected to tell immigration authorities of a change in his work permit status. They, too, have appealed their case to the minister.


The process

* April 2002: Fan and three friends assault, kidnap and rob a man in Auckland.
* May 2003: Fan is convicted and sentenced to 3 years in prison.
* August 2004: Then-Immigration Minister Paul Swain issues Fan with a deportation order.
* March 2006: Deportation Review Tribunal quashes order on grounds of the emotional effects it would have on Fan and his family.
* Ongoing: Immigration Minister David Cunliffe investigates appealing the tribunal's decision to the High Court.