A review is to be held into out of hours compliance visits carried out by Immigration New Zealand (INZ). The review, by Mike Heron KC, will consider existing policies and processes for such visits by immigration officers visits and is needed following concerns raised by the Pacific community.

The review is expected to be completed by the end of June. In the meantime, until further notice, INZ will not be conducting any out of hours visits.

Terms of Reference released for review into out of hours immigration visits - MBIE website

We have worked very hard to ensure the compliance visits today are very different to the Dawn Raids of the 1970s. We engage respectfully with the occupants of premises and at all times our compliance officers are expected to act with professionalism and integrity.

However, we acknowledge we have more work to do to consider the context of the Dawn Raids in compliance and deportation activities involving our Pacific people.

Background

Between 1 July 2022 and 2 May 2023, the INZ Compliance team has interacted with 657 people who have either voluntarily departed, or who have been deported. Of those, just 20 visits (or 3 per cent of visits) have been outside the hours of 7:00 to 21:00.

The breakdown by nationality of the 20 out of hours visits during this time is:

• Chinese 11
• Indian 3
• Tongan 2
• Indonesian 1
• Samoan 1
• Malaysian 1
• Fijian 1

The top 5 countries for those who have either voluntarily departed, or who have been deported are: 

• India 128
• China 106
• Samoa 55
• Fiji 34
• Tonga 34

We work with people who are liable for deportation in a way that is appropriate to their individual circumstances.  Most people depart voluntarily when we contact them. The majority of those remaining unlawfully in New Zealand are not criminals.  They choose to remain here for a number of reasons such as employment and family.  In these cases, we focus more attention on engaging with the individual and actively case managing them. 

For those who do not choose to make contact with INZ we prioritise our visits according to set criteria. Those engaged in criminality are the highest priority, starting with people who are a threat to national security. The other main priorities are:

• persons that are about to be released from prison
• persons that have come to the attention of Police for criminal conduct
• persons who have exhausted their pathways to remain in New Zealand:
  • they have no avenues of appeal, or
  • they have been determined to be a non-genuine refugee.