Ministers spent time with Thai overstayer

Immigration Minister Paul Swain has denied that he had any involvement in the case of a Thai overstayer who has been paid by a Government minister - despite meeting the overstayer at the minister's house in Samoa.

Mr Swain, Foreign Minister Phil Goff, Labour MP Ross Robertson and senior officials from the New Zealand and Samoan Police all visited the house of Associate Justice Minister Taito Phillip Field during a break in official talks in Samoa in March.

Mr Field said he took the group to see progress on his two-storey house which was then being built.

Auckland builder Keith Williams, who was doing preparatory work on the floors of the house with the Thai overstayer, tiler Sunan Siriwan, said both men met the visitors.

"I shook hands with Goff. They all shook hands with Sunan. Taito was showing off his house," he said.

Mr Swain confirmed last night that he visited the house briefly, but denied any impropriety.

"I met a couple of people there but do not recall who they were or their roles," he said.

"At no time was any immigration matter discussed. Any indication to the contrary from [National Party immigration spokesman] Tony Ryall is unfounded and a politically motivated smear.

"I have had no involvement in the case because Associate Minister of Immigration Damien O'Connor handles all individual cases as part of his delegated responsibilities."

Mr Field said yesterday that he now regretted that he had ever suggested that Mr Siriwan and Mr Williams should go to Samoa after Mr Siriwan's application for refugee status in New Zealand was turned down.

Mr Siriwan, who had been in New Zealand for several years, went to Mr Field after his de facto wife, also a Thai overstayer, was picked up by immigration authorities during a raid on the house of another Thai family in Auckland in January.

His wife was deported to Thailand and took the couple's two-year-old son, who was born in New Zealand. Mr Field said Mr Siriwan was adamant that he could not return to Thailand to join them.

"He said he was fearful for his life. He seemed quite clear that he was not prepared to go to Thailand. I just presumed the reason he applied for refugee status was for those reasons," he said.

Mr Field said he suggested that Mr Siriwan should go to Samoa and apply for a work permit to return to New Zealand from there.

He said he discussed the case with Mr O'Connor, and those discussions "gave me the indication that he would look at it favourably".

"I didn't discuss anything with Paul Swain," he said.

He said he offered to let Mr Siriwan stay in the garage and Mr Siriwan chose to work on his house, but this was not a condition of staying there.

Mr Field's wife, Maxine, who was at the meeting where the arrangements were made, said yesterday that she insisted on letting Mr Siriwan stay on the property because she felt sorry for him. He stayed in the garage for some time, and is now staying in Apia with Mrs Field's son and his family.

"This is the Samoan culture again - come and stay at our house, it's available."

A few days after arriving in Samoa, Mr Williams was involved in an altercation with a taxi driver and Mr Field told the two men to leave. Mrs Field said: "He [Mr Williams] cried to me. I pleaded with Taito, 'Please help him, please don't send him away.' "

Later, after Mr Williams had returned to New Zealand, Mrs Field said she decided to pay for Mr Siriwan's wife and son to come from Thailand. She asked her son, who owed her money, to pay for their tickets.

"My son and his wife are taking care of them now, feeding them and accommodating them and they are being loved and treated as family," she said.