Time runs out for missing Tongan rugby players

11.45

Time has run out for 14 Tongan rugby players who disappeared as they were about to board their flight home on September 8 after a short tour of New Zealand.

The Immigration Service said a deadline for the 14 players to give themselves up to authorities expired today and they were now illegal overstayers.

Immigration Service chief operating officer Brendan Quirk said the service would not actively hunt the 14 Tongans but alerts had been put out to the Tongan community, employers, airports and Government agencies.

He said an employer who knowingly took on an illegal overstayer risked prosecution.

The 14 were thought to have spread out, with some staying in Auckland where they may be hidden by friends and relatives.

Others were thought to have travelled south.

Mr Quirk said they had been given the statutory 42-day period of grace to leave, 'get their house in order' and seek approval to stay, but under the Immigration Act they became liable for removal today.

"Now they are liable to be taken into custody and be removed from New Zealand, should they come to our notice."

Earlier this month the arrest in the United States of a Tongan MP over an immigration scam raised questions about whether the rugby tour was a set-up to smuggle players into New Zealand.

Etuate Lavulavu was charged over an alleged involvement in a scheme to help Tongans become American citizens, the New Zealand Herald reported.

Lavulavu helped to organise the Tongan rugby trip to New Zealand.

The newspaper said some of the players who had disappeared had said they wanted a better life in New Zealand and they always intended to stay.

- NZPA