Police get new power to trace overstayers

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Police are being given round-the-clock access to immigration data so they can find out whether driving offenders or other suspects are illegal aliens.

Immigration Minister Paul Swain told Parliament yesterday that the police were developing a memo of understanding which would, among other things, give them access to information from his department.

This would include 24-hour access to Immigration Service data on overstayers and illegal immigrants.

But civil libertarians and Opposition politicians last night queried the plan.

And the Police Association said its members would need strong assurances about the accuracy of any information gleaned from a computer in the small hours.

Association president Greg O'Connor said the risk of making wrongful arrests because of faulty information meant it would not simply be a matter of "police just picking people up and taking them to the police station".

National MP Pansy Wong said she was seeking confirmation of a report that the Immigration Service did not know how many overstayers were in New Zealand.

A review of the Immigration Act has been in progress since last month, after a Chinese student overstayer who repeatedly ignored fines for unlicensed driving ran a red light in Auckland and killed a woman before dawn on Easter Sunday.

Jiang Kai Liao, 20, was jailed for 21 months for causing the death of Mt Roskill woman Anne Lester but the police said three previous tickets he accrued for unlicensed driving went undetected because he gave slightly different versions of his name each time.

Mrs Wong, who is National's Asian relations spokeswoman, doubted whether giving police access to immigration computers would have prevented that.

Mr Swain told New Zealand First leader Winston Peters that one of the law review's aims was to improve collaboration between Government departments and to bolster the removal process for overstayers and illegal immigrants.

Mrs Wong said she did not oppose information-matching in principle, but was concerned that police might unfairly single out non-European New Zealanders.

"I need an assurance that Asian New Zealanders in particular, who like myself speak with an accent, will not immediately be subject to profiling."

She was also concerned about the reliability of Immigration Service information, and police familiarity with immigration law and the appeals process.

Green MP Keith Locke was also worried that migrants would be targeted, creating racial disharmony.

"If police are seen as agents for immigration it will lead to antagonism ... "

New Zealand Council for Civil Liberties chairman Michael Bott wondered how police would decide whose immigration status to check.

"Is it every coloured person they're going to check - or every person with a foreign accent?"

Auckland Council for Civil Liberties president Barry Wilson said the cost to police and immigration of mistakes would be high.

Additional reporting: Juliet Rowan, Kevin Taylor