New Nz Rules On Tongans

The Tongan Government was told in September that under a new scheme Tongans will be allowed to enter New Zealand to work for up to six months, ac cording to a spokesman for the Auckland Tongan community, Mr W. C.

Edwards.

The Tongan Government was setting up a migration committee from within the Auckland Tongan community and churches. The committee would keep a tight control on Tongans coming on temporary work permits and those who sponsored them.

Mr Edwards said the existing temporary work scheme (four months and renewable for a further two months) had “fizzled out ” because it had been left to employers to organise it. They had failed in this task through lack offacilities and lack of interest in the welfare aspects of the work.

Mr Edwards said the new committee would bring the Tongan Society, churches and respected permanent Tongan residents back into the picture as sponsors. It would try to prevent profiteering sponsorships and make sure tem porary workers went home when their permits expired.

“We want the whole thing to be on a genuine basis so that when a tem porary worker gets here he will not disappear into the woods as so often in the past,” Mr Edwards said.

In the same week as Mr Edwards made his statement, the NZ Minister of Immigration, Mr Gill, said that a total of 1,281 Pacific Island overstayers mostly single men have recently been told to go home. They were given from three to six months to do so.