Ejected foreign students costly for taxpayer

Airfares to send home foreign students kicked out of New Zealand in the past two years have cost taxpayers about $240,000.

About 136 international students flew home courtesy of the Immigration Service after they lost their study permits and were served with removal orders. The average cost was about $1500 each, but the most expensive trip is understood to have cost $10,000.

Six students had a police escort on their flights home - usually because of a criminal offence - costing on average about $6000 for each trip.

Immigration officials could not provide a list of their destinations but those sent home are among about 600 students from countries such as Uzbekistan, Iran, Vietnam, Pakistan, South Korea, China and India whose permits were revoked during the past two years.

Most left voluntarily and paid their own way home, according to figures issued under the Official Information Act.

An Immigration Service spokeswoman said it was the department's policy to pay the airfare when students were served with removal orders.

They were banned from New Zealand for five years and must pay back the debt if they returned.

The most common reasons for loss of study permits were skipping or dropping out of classes.

The airfare bill was small compared with the $4 billion international students had pumped into the economy during the past two years, said Education New Zealand spokesman Stuart Boag.

Some students could not rely on their families to pick up the tab if they ran out of money.

"For some of them there's a shame aspect because their parents have put up the money.

"Not all of them are rich or driving around in fast cars.

"To go back and say that they failed when their family's hopes are riding on them - I'm sure some of them don't want to go through that process."

Students had to have $10,000 on top of their tuition fees to get a study permit.

"A lot of these folks have stumped up $30,000 or $40,000 if they are studying at university and the reason for that is so they don't throw themselves on the mercy of the state."

National Party immigration spokesman Tony Ryall said the number of students flown home at the taxpayer's expense was small when taken as a proportion of the 80,000 international students who were here at any one time.

- NZPA