Immigration Service checks whether overstayers worked

The lawyer for a family of Tongan overstayers has attracted Immigration Service attention over whether one of them was paid for working in his Auckland office.

Onehunga lawyer John Foliaki last week revealed that 50-year-old Sesalina Kulikefu, a heart and kidney patient on home dialysis, and her 23-year-old daughter Elenoa had gone into hiding.

Her student daughter Siuati, 18, was put in police cells after authorities visited their home last Monday.

Siuati, who was taken into custody on an Immigration Service removal warrant, was released from the Papakura station cells on Wednesday at the direction of Associate Immigration Minister Damien O'Connor.

Mr Foliaki said yesterday that the two daughters had worked in his office on work experience, but Siuati had not been in paid employment there.

When asked if the 23-year-old had been in paid employment in his office, he said: "I can't comment, for private reasons."

He agreed that many people would infer from this that she had been paid.

"We're dealing with a family whose mother needed life-saving medical treatment," he said.

"You have a father who is overseas in Australia trying to help by sending money and you have a daughter [Siuati] working at McDonald's who is also helping with the medical expenses and you have somebody who has had work experience here and I don't want to comment whether she has been at any point a paid employee."

The maximum penalty under the Immigration Act for knowingly employing a person not legally entitled to work in New Zealand is $50,000.

The Immigration Service indicated it would check on Mr Foliaki's comments.

"If there is any substance to what you say then the Immigration Service will investigate," a service spokeswoman told the Herald.

Following Siuati's release from police custody, she is required to report to immigration officials daily. Her sister and mother have agreed to be interviewed by the Immigration Service on Wednesday.