1News Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver gives her opinion on Immigration NZ's treatment of some in the Pasifika community.
Immigration New Zealand (INZ) has a lot to answer for.
Its behaviour has led a clearly unimpressed Government to take action.
After Immigration Minister Michael Wood found out last week that INZ officials have continued with dawn raid tactics, he ordered an independent review into the department’s practises and culture which is to be delivered by the end of June.
In a show of just how furious the Labour Government is, with just a day’s notice, he and a high powered team came to a meeting in Otahuhu to apologise to the Pasifika community.
And in an unscheduled visit Acting Prime Minister Carmel Sepuloni also turned up towards the end of the meeting. That’s because for her, it’s personal.
She was one of the key figures involved in the Government’s formal apology – a Samoan ifoga ceremony – back in 2020. Steeped in tradition, it was taken seriously by Pasifika and she knows how betrayed the community now feels and what a big deal it is.
She didn’t hold back either, distancing the Government from INZ saying that clearly the Department needs to check its policies and the way it does things.
She also pointed to a specific example of a family raided by INZ and police in the early hours of the morning, saying it wasn’t mandated by the Government it was an official decision "not only were we the offender, but the offended in this situation".
It was interesting to see the discomfort of Immigration officials in a room filled with people they would like to deport.
INZ can deny it all it likes but there’s no doubt Pasifika are targeted and I’ve done enough stories over the years to know that.
Community leaders, lawyers and advocates are fed up to the teeth with INZ’s poor behaviour from its compliance team and staff. Part of the problem is that many are poorly trained not to mention culturally incompetent.
Pacific leaders have been pushing for a pathway to residency – not an outright amnesty as they know that’s unlikely – but a fair pathway. Where for example much needed workers can get their status legalised and families can stay together.
Wood says he has got advice from officials and policy makers and a decision on this is in the pipeline.
There’s hopes that things might change but it wont happen overnight. Policy can happen in a relatively short time, attitudes take a whole lot longer.
SHARE ME