Soaring cost of expelling illegals

By STEPHEN COOK AND ANGELA GREGORY

The cost to the taxpayer of sending illegal migrants home has nearly doubled in the past year, and now exceeds $3 million.

Most of those expelled - such as Iranian Saied Ghanbari, expelled at the weekend after more than a year on the run - are accompanied by officials.

Removal costs include air fares, departure taxes, escort and legal costs and interpreters' fees.

Immigration Service figures show that in the year to June 30, $3.08 million was spent on sending home 1205 illegal overstayers and people on temporary visas who committed crimes while in New Zealand.

The 1205 figure was an increase of 455 on the previous 12 months.

Expelled migrants must repay the Immigration Service for their removal costs before they can return to the country legally.

Service spokeswoman Kathryn O'Sullivan did not know how much had been repaid.

Ms O'Sullivan said removal costs rose in the past 12 months because the removal of unsuccessful asylum seekers had become a priority.

That was a complicated process, as many arrived in New Zealand on false passports.

Many were from far away places such as Iran, which meant the cost of sending them back was expensive.

Of the 713 people who arrived claiming refugee status in the year to June 30, 105 were from Iran, 95 from India and 67 from Thailand.

The total was down 887 on the same period three years ago.

The Immigration Service accepted only 14 per cent of the latest year's refugee applications, and only 41 of the 519 appeals to the Refugee Status Appeals Authority were successful.

To gain asylum in New Zealand, people must show they have been forced to flee their home country because of persecution or for political or religious reasons.

National's immigration spokesman, Wayne Mapp, said the costs had become so high because the Government had let the overstayer population get completely out of hand.

The country had 20,000 overstayers, he said, and it was impossible to find many of them.

Immigration Minister Paul Swain said the Government was determined to stamp out the problem and had increased fines for employers knowingly hiring illegal workers.

The expulsion of Saied Ghanbari on Saturday, after overstaying for eight years, cost taxpayers the return air fares of three police officers and a nurse who accompanied him as far as Malaysia.

The Iranian arrived in New Zealand on a false passport in 1996 and failed in his bid for refugee status.

Ghanbari's lawyer, Colin Amery, said it was assumed Ghanbari was already in custody in Tehran as he had not been heard from within the first 14 hours of his arrival on Sunday morning.

He can apply for a visa to return to New Zealand in five years, when his removal order expires.