Report Finds

Discrimination

In August 1986, the race relations conciliator Wal ter Hirsh released a report which found New Zealand immigration and enforce ment procedures discriminated against Pacific Islanders.

Hirsh found that Pacific Islanders comprised only one-third of the average 10,000 overstayers, yet were 86% of those prose cuted. The two-thirds majority of overstayers more than half from West ern countries- comprised only 14% of prosecutions.

Most immigration offic ers harboured the miscon ception that Europeans overstayed for shorter periods ( a myth exploded by statistics) so therefore it was more important to chase Pacific Islanders.

Hirsh criticised the immigration division’s excuse that Pacific Islanders were easier to track down because entry criteria meant more documentation was kept on them and their New Zealand relatives, These very entry criteria were discriminatory, Hirsh said, and should be applied to all visitors or not at all.

Enforcement officers, particularly in Auckland, ran an unofficial overstayer target of four each a month as proof of their efficiency. The report noted that in pursuit of this self-imposed target, officers took the easiest route to prosecute Pacific Islanders. Most immigration staff regarded the deportation appeals system as a “manipulative device re-

sorted to only by people from the Pacific Islands.”

Appeals for overstaying usually lasted 12 to 18 months during which time convicted Pacific Island overstayers lived in a cli mate of perpetual fear.

Hirsh called for an in vestigation into how these overstayers were being held and then deported while making compulsory visits to a police station.

The report also recom mended the new Immigra tion Bill wipe provisions for powers of arrest and search for immigration officers. Hirsh called for a review of discriminatory family sponsorship provi sions for Pacific Island visi tors and the abolition of visas for short- term visi tors from Fiji, Tonga and Western Samoa.