Pacific Islanders make up over half of declined visitor visas

Pacific Islanders make up over half of all declined visitor visas applicants. Photo / iStock

Statistics provided to 1News showing Pacific Islanders make up over half of all declined visitor visa applicants lead some critics to allege Immigration New Zealand is discriminating against Pasifika.

From August to October, nearly 1500 visa applications from 68 countries were declined and over half of those were from nine Pacific countries.

The disparity is clear in the numbers from that period: Of 1299 applications by visitors from Tonga, 224 were declined. In comparison, of the 1398 applications for visitor visas by people from Thailand, only six were declined.

Of 3380 applications by people from Fiji, 371 were turned down, whereas only 30 applications were declined from the 3816 by visitors from South Africa.

Immigration New Zealand judges whether someone will follow the conditions of their visa, including if they will return in the timeframe specified. Photo / NZME

Immigration New Zealand judges whether someone will follow the conditions of their visa, including if they will return in the timeframe specified.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told 1News, “we’ve had processes in place for a number of years just to make sure that people are genuinely visitors.”

Member of Polynesian Panthers Alec Toleafoa told 1News, “while that is a universal criteria for anybody wanting to come to New Zealand, it appears to me that Pacific people are overrepresented.

“So-called ‘special relationship’ that we have: it doesn’t seem to be reflected in these statistics.”

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said processes to assess whether someone would comply with visa conditions have been in place for years. Photo / File

Minister of Immigration Michael Wood told 1News immigration officials assessed individual applications and made calls based on any evidence they had.

“One of the key factors which is assessed is what is called the ‘bona fides’, which is effectively an assessment as to whether there is an expectation that the person will keep within the confines of the visitor visa and return home at the end of that period.”

The director of Pacific studies at the University of Canterbury, Professor Steven Ratuva told 1News, “the figures show that the immigration system is still very much biased against Pacific people coming into the country.”

Wood didn’t accept any allegations of discrimination towards Pasifika: “I have not seen any evidence of bias,” he told 1News.