By ALISON HORWOOD
The German family deported from New Zealand last year have not given up their fight to live in New Zealand - and that persistence may still pay off.
A Government review of the immigration case of Guenther and Petra Schier may now go ahead because the couple have dropped a complaint to the United Nations over their failure to gain permanent residency in New Zealand.
The Schier family, who owned a store at Maruia in the Buller District, lived in New Zealand for almost a decade. Guenther and Petra and their three New Zealand-born daughters were deported in June last year after it was revealed that Mr Schier did not declare drug convictions in Germany when he arrived.
The couple's Christchurch-based lawyer, Bill Morgan, said the family would return very quickly if allowed.
"They have got on with getting jobs and a house - life doesn't stand still. But they always wanted to come back."
The Green Party co-leader and a long-time Schier campaigner, Rod Donald, said he had advised the family to drop the complaint to the UN, lodged in 1998.
"It seemed to be an unnecessary impediment to their cause. It was lodged when they were in the country, and by the time the United Nations acknowledged it, they were already back in Germany."
Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel has the Schier file but has indicated she would not investigate the case while the UN complaint was pending.
Ms Dalziel is on holiday in Australia, but her office said authorities were waiting for confirmation from the UN that the complaint had been shelved.
When the Schier family was deported, the Immigration Minister at the time, Tuariki Delamere, was criticised for not using his ministerial power to allow them to stay.
Mr Donald said he hoped Ms Dalziel would use the same approach as last year when she criticised Mr Delamere for not allowing the family to remain.
Following an appeal, Mr Schier's drug convictions in Germany had been wiped, and the family could apply to live in New Zealand as two conviction-free adults, sponsored by their New Zealand-born children.
Mrs Schier told National Radio from Germany yesterday that she always wanted to return to New Zealand.
"It is the home of our children. I don't want them to lose that culture."
She said their eldest daughter Bianca had become withdrawn after the upheaval last year, when Mr Schier had to leave separately from the rest of the family.
Cannabis charges laid against the Schiers in New Zealand in 1997 were withdrawn after it was found that a search of their house had not been carried out under the correct legislation.
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