PM says pregnant overstayer was 'shown compassion'

Compassion was shown to an immigrant woman with renal failure because she had been pregnant, Prime Minister Helen Clark said yesterday.

But in many cases people with acute medical conditions who were wanting to live here were sent home so they were not a burden on the New Zealand health system, she said.

The Prime Minister was responding to a report that an overstayer from Kiribati would not have to pay for a $500,000 liver transplant after being granted permanent residency by the Government.

Dwayne Crombie, chief executive of the Waitemata District Health Board, said illegal immigrants were "sneaking" into New Zealand and running up massive medical hospital bills they could not pay.

Immigration Minister David Cunliffe said immigrants were not accepted into New Zealand if they had a medical condition likely to place "heavy demands" on the health system. He said changes were made last November to the health screening policy to tighten the rules on what standards of immigrant health would be acceptable.

"There are exceptional circumstances," he said. "Sometimes we grant medical waivers to people who can show that their contribution to New Zealand will be significant."

Other exceptional circumstances were where returning someone to their own country "could mean a death sentence" or where there were legitimate interests of family members, such as dependent children, who were New Zealand citizens.

Helen Clark, questioned about the case on Newstalk ZB, said compassion had been shown towards the woman suffering with renal failure.

"This woman presented with acute renal failure when she was seven months' pregnant and delivered a New Zealand-born child and at that point I think compassion was shown by the Immigration Minister," she said.

"This is a case where the minister, who is a family man himself, felt compassion for the person and the baby."

- NZPA