Tuvaluan man given temporary permit to continue life-saving treatment

6.15pm

A Tuvaluan overstayer on life-saving dialysis has been granted a two-year temporary permit to stay in New Zealand, making him eligible to keep receiving the treatment, Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel said today.

The 32-year-old, who is being treated for acute renal failure at Auckland Hospital, had made an application for ministerial intervention so he could keep receiving treatment.

This followed a government clampdown on free health care for foreigners.

The hospital had intended to stop the man's dialysis treatment tomorrow but Health Minister Annette King said earlier that decision had been set aside.

The Government has now stepped in at the 11th hour after Ms Dalziel spent the afternoon poring over the man's thick file.

She told reporters today the man had been an overstayer since 1998 but his wife, a Cook Islander, was a New Zealand citizen and they had a New Zealand-born child.

Ms Dalziel said that the man had been invited last year to apply to the Immigration Service for a temporary permit.

It appeared he had not received that letter.

"If he had followed that advice last year he would be a New Zealand resident right now and we simply wouldn't be debating the issue in public," she said.

"He would have been eligible for treatment. I've therefore decided to intervene today to ensure that he is able to continue with treatment."

The minister said she had told the man's lawyer, who had been on her way to the hospital to tell the man at the time of Ms Dalziel's announcement.

Ms Dalziel said the man's kidney problems surfaced about May last year. It was only recently that he suffered renal failure.

"He is facing a death sentence tomorrow if we don't intervene at this point."

Under a policy adopted last December, foreign patients not entitled to treatment will be taken off dialysis after they have been stabilised and their country's government has indicated it will not pay.

Ms Dalziel said the two-year work permit made the patient eligible for the treatment.

He would be able to apply for residence at any time during that two-year period and it was "highly likely" he would be granted that based on his marriage in 2001 to a New Zealand citizen. Their child was born about a month ago.

The man, who had been working unlawfully until recently, might require a medical waiver on his permit.

Both Ms Dalziel and Prime Minister Helen Clark said this was a special case and overstayers should not expect free treatment at the expense of the New Zealand taxpayer.

"My view on it is that the New Zealand taxpayer cannot be expected to pick up long-term medical costs from people who choose to overstay in New Zealand," Miss Clark told reporters at her post-cabinet press conference.

"Were we to signal that that was the general rule we would undoubtedly get many more seeking medical treatment than we do. However, there will always be individual circumstances which warrant special consideration. It is clear that this is one of those cases."

Miss Clark said some countries, such as Samoa, had arrangements with the New Zealand Government for treating their nationals.

She understood that each year about 14 or so people seeking dialysis treatment were overstayers.

"The costs of that can be up to $72,000 and I understand that's the marginal costs."

She said that meant some $1 million a year could be spent providing dialysis treatment for overstayers while there were waiting lists for New Zealanders needing the treatment.

The clearer guidelines were necessary.

"... you do have to draw some kind of line out of fairness to your own people".

Ms Dalziel said there had been no suggestion the man's treatment costs should be recouped.

- NZPA