Mike Hosking: Karel Sroubek case will haunt the Government

Jan Antolik, also known as Karel Sroubek, appeared at the Auckland District Court in February 2011, found guilty of having a false passport and lying to immigration officials.

OPINION

The Karel Sroubek case is now the can of worms it was always going to be, with still no explanation outside of "trust me I know what I'm doing," from Iain Lees-Galloway.

This thing is growing legs, because when it comes to issues like who gets to be here on a permanent basis, New Zealanders have an inherent sense of fairness.

And immigration especially at the tricky end of the equation has no shortage of tough luck, if not heart breaking stories. And out those stories have come in the past 48 hours, involving the seeming unfairness and anger at the unfairness, like the couples and families being split up.

All of them have question marks around them, all of them have the usual elements of doubt, the relationships you're not quite sure are real, the mismatching names, the previous issues in other countries with visas, and the medical complications.

None of this is new, but what has made it more relevant than ever is the comparison, and that is what so often we lack.

What we have now with Sroubek is a yard stick. For every family, couple, or person that gets booted out of this country for what they would argue are dubious or unfair reasons, they can quite rightly point to a bloke in prison on drugs offences, gang connections and passport fraud and go, "how come he gets to stay?"

And that's not a bad question to ask, and the government defence involves privacy, namely the criminals. Suddenly his rights are elevated higher than the other cases, suddenly we have bought into a problem that never needed to be ours.

What do we owe this guy? Why have we invested in his issues, problems and future? Why is a government bending over backwards to help protect, pay for him and his plight? Especially when we have any number of seemingly more approachable cases with miserable ends.

No one doubts these calls are hard, no one doubts there will, in fact, be some sort of semi logical explanation as to why the decision that has been made, has been made.

But the government's naivety has come to the fore again. By picking Sroubek's side, they have alienated themselves from most level headed, fair minded New Zealanders who guard this country and it's access with rightful pride.

This is not just a can of worms, this is a decision. And perhaps with this morning's revelations about his trip back to the Czech Republic, this is a decision that will most likely, in some way shape or form, will haunt them, because it is far from over.