An independent review following an April dawn raid on a Pasifika overstayer has recommended a law change to limit or ban dawn raids.
Described as "hugely disappointing and uncomfortable" by deputy prime minister Carmel Sepuloni, the incident followed the Government's historic 2021 apology for the dawn raids of the 1970s, where Pasifika overstayers were woken in the early hours of the morning, and often subjected to harsh verbal and physical treatment.
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) - of which Immigration New Zealand is part - has today acknowledged its "guidance" had not reflected the apology and it was "prioritising putting this right".
It follows a dawn raid in April, after the Government apologised for the 1970s practice in 2021. (Source: 1News)
MBIE chief executive Carolyn Tremain has committed to "continuing a pause" on "out-of-hours visits" to residential addresses by compliance officers for deportation purposes, following the release of the review.
The review was triggered after the April dawn raid, following community and political pressure.
Led by Mike Heron KC, the review delivered five recommendations:
- The Government should consider amending the Immigration Act 2009 to specify the criteria for out of hours compliance visits and whether those involving residential addresses be stopped entirely, or limited to specific situations.
- Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) and guidelines for compliance officers should be updated to reinforce that out of hours compliance visits are a matter of last resort and reasonable alternatives should have been considered beforehand. SOPs should also be updated to reflect policy about when and how these kinds of visits should occur and given the lack of legislative time available this could be given priority
- Any assessment of out of hours visits should consider the impact on anyone else who may be present, in particular children, but also the elderly or other vulnerable individuals, as well as New Zealand citizens or residents. The way in which the operation is carried out should take into account relevant cultural factors.
- Any decision to undertake an out of hours compliance visit should also include an assessment of reasonableness, proportionality and public interest.
- Any out of hours compliance activity should be authorised by the relevant compliance manager and the national manager before it can occur, although it is acknowledged there are arguments for elevating authorisation further.
Tremain said any decision to review or change existing legislation was a matter for the Government, but MBIE was already working on updating its operating procedures and guidance for compliance officers to reflect the dawn raids apology.
“I do want to again acknowledge the impact the Dawn Raids of the 1970s had on the Pacific community and that the trauma from those remains today,” she said.
“We know we have more to do as we learn from the past to shape the future.
“We accept that we should have reflected the Government’s apology in our guidance sooner and are prioritising putting this right. The new guidance will specify when and how out of hours visits to residential addresses should take place and make it clearer that they should only be carried out as a last resort when all other alternatives have been considered.
“We are working on this as a matter of priority but we will continue our pause on out of hours compliance visits to residential addresses until the guidance is updated. This means visits will only take place between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday.
“I do want to stress that out of hours visits are rare and only make up around three per cent of compliance visits, but we recognise the impact they can cause and acknowledge we have work to do to ensure they are only carried out as a matter of last resort under strict guidelines when all other options have been exhausted.”
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