December 5, 2006

Tough new immigration laws to be unveiled today will make it easier to expel unwanted overstayers, but the Government claims to have watered down some proposals after concerns were expressed about human rights issues.
 
Immigration Minister David Cunliffe will give details of a review of the Immigration Act, and subsequent Cabinet decisions, this afternoon.
 
Widespread changes have been foreshadowed - including slashing the number of independent immigration appeal authorities from four to just one.
 
This will quash the multiple avenues of appeals now available and shorten the time the process takes.
 
The Residence Review Board, the Removal Review Authority, the Deportation Tribunal and the Refugee Status Appeals Authority are expected to be merged into a single immigration and refugee appeals tribunal.
 
The Government also wants appeals against expulsion on humanitarian grounds by illegal overstayers to be restricted to fewer categories of people. And it wants legislative provisions for excluding non-citizens from entering New Zealand to be broadened and strengthened.
 
Clearer processes, including fewer steps, are also expected around the actual expulsion of overstayers.
 
The Government received nearly 4000 submissions on its discussion document on proposed changes to the act, of which 360 were not form letters. A further 650 people attended public meetings. 

Mr Cunliffe said yesterday: "We have thought very, very carefully about what we've heard from the public and we've made a number of changes to the discussion document, some of them reasonably significant. There were a number of issues raised in the human rights area, there were some health issues raised, and some people felt that perhaps the powers of immigration officers might be going a bit too far. The result was "something of a rebalancing to take account of the concerns that have been raised". He would not give details of those concerns raised or the final shape of the appeals process. 

(Source: NZ Newspapers) 

Among other issues, human rights concerns may have been raised about plans to extend the use of classified information.
 
The discussion document proposed allowing classified information to be used for all forms of immigration decision-making without disclosing it to the applicant.
 
Classified information cannot generally be used, unless it relates to a security risks. Aspects of the act relating to security risks - Part 4A - have been excluded from the review until later. 

The Immigration Minister and Associate Immigration Minister were set to pass a considerable amount of their work to immigration officials under the proposed changes. This would include giving senior officials the power to make exceptions to residence policy - a job normally done by the associate minister. 

The Government was further considering requiring a person to exhaust all avenues of appeal before seeking ministerial intervention. A single document system based around visas will replace the current two-tier visa and permit system, essentially making it easier to use.