Free immigration advice gets cold shoulder

By ALAN PERROTT

Some Pacific Island community leaders are being criticised for offering free immigration advice.

Tongan community worker Alexis Huni said he had had trouble from immigration professionals angered his work may be robbing them of clients.

Mr Huni is helping the Immigration Service run seminars to train community leaders in showing overstayers how to take advantage of the Government's limited six-month overstayer amnesty.

He is also lodging amnesty applications on behalf of Tongan overstayers for free.

"I know some consultants and lawyers don't like what I do. Some think I am stealing their clients."

Mr Huni would not name any of the consultants or lawyers involved, but said some charged up to $5000 just to lodge an application on behalf of a client.

The Rev Mua Strickson-Pua, from the Tangata Pasifika Resource Centre, has heard similar grumblings, but said: "These people have to remember they are playing with people's lives."

Some lawyers would be happy to see the amnesty process collapse so the Government was forced to rethink its approach to the overstayer issue, he said. There was still widespread distrust of the Government's intentions regarding the amnesty.

Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel is aware of unhappy "mutterings" among immigration consultants, but said the Immigration Service was determined to push on with its community strategy.

The service has held meetings in all the big centres to inform migrant communities of the new immigration legislation and how the amnesty works.

Mr Huni said he would continue to recommend people lodge applications if they fitted amnesty criteria. He had already lodged successful amnesty applications for two Tongan families with NZ-born children.

The amnesty criteria include people who have lived in NZ for at least five years, are in a relationship with a New Zealand citizen, or have a New Zealand-born child.