There are fresh calls for the Government to allow people from Pacific countries to holiday here without having to apply for a Visitor Visa.
It comes after 1News revealed this week that from August to October, Pasifika made up half of all visitor applications being denied by immigration officials.
The Green Party is calling for Pacific island nations to be added to our country's visa waiver list.
The list applies to those who don't need a visa if they're visiting for up to three months.
When New Zealand reopened its borders in May, it welcomed those 60 visa waiver countries first.
Immigration lawyer Nicola Tiffen said the visa waiver list had a general theme.
"The United States, the United Kingdom, Western European countries – a perception, I suppose, of countries that we consider safe," she said.
That list doesn't include the Pacific and some want that changed.
"It would mean so much for Pacific communities to be able to come to New Zealand and not try and have to access a visa," Reverend Alofa Lale said.
Figures obtained by 1News show Pasifika make up half of all rejected visitor visa applications. (Source: 1News)
The Green Party agrees.
"We're in the Pacific geographically, culturally. The interactions we've had with the Pacific is centuries old and that's not reflected in our immigration settings," MP Teanau Tuiono said.
Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson said the Government wasn't considering any changes at present.
"For some countries we can have visa waivers, for others we don't. We do that because we need to manage the flow of people that come into our country," he said.
"We continue to work closely with our Pacific neighbours around migration issues both through things like the RSE scheme, but also the Pacific Access Quota, the Samoan Quota, and so we do have good and important relationships there."
Kiribati, Nauru, and Tuvalu were removed as visa waiver countries back in 2003.
The then Labour government argued it wanted a consistent policy for all pacific countries and it would also reduce exposure to "adverse impacts of...overstaying".
When it comes to overstayer numbers, Immigration NZ's estimate from 2017 suggests 14,000 people, with a third of those from the Pacific and many others from Asia.
Official data for those deported for overstaying any type of visa in the two years before the Covid-19 pandemic had India and China making up the largest numbers, followed by Samoa, Tonga and Fiji.
Despite that, Pacific countries continue to face harsher scrutiny at the border with higher levels of visitor visas declined.
Tiffen agrees Pacific countries should be added onto the visa waiver list.
"They are our neighbours. We've got a special relationship with them. We're not talking about huge numbers of people and, in my experience, they aren't the people that tend to give us any more grief than any other nationality," she said.
Immigration NZ said its criteria also includes economic factors. Lale said that didn't necessarily take into consideration the cultural aspects of Pacific communities.
"Money of course is important because you do have to feed people and look after them, but it is not the be all and end all."
"It's not just about tourism, if that at all – it's about meeting with family, it's about connecting with relatives," Tuiono said.
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