Tongans get bad deal, MPs told

By ANGELA GREGORY

New Zealand has been accused of hostile immigration policies bordering on racism towards Tongans.

A parliamentary select committee into relations between New Zealand and Tonga heard in Mangere yesterday that Tongans felt they were treated unfairly when they tried to enter the country.

Representatives of Tongans living in Auckland said they were unhappy with Immigration Service policies, including the controversial pregnancy testing of Tongan women seeking visitor permits.

The Tongan submitters were also disturbed by news this week that police were being given access to immigration data to find out whether driving offenders or other suspects were illegal aliens.

A Government review of the Immigration Act is aiming to improve collaboration between departments and to bolster the removal process for overstayers and illegal immigrants.

A member of the Tongan Advisory Council, Paul Muller, said hostile immigration policies were curbing Tongan access to New Zealand in an increasingly racial climate.

"We are already afraid for overstayers at the moment, that they are breaking the law but are doing that for a better way of life."

In response to a question by Progressive MP Matt Robson, Mr Muller said the pregnancy-testing policy was culturally inappropriate.

Green MP Keith Locke told the committee that figures he had obtained showed few Tongans were being accepted as immigrants.

He said Tongans had an annual residency quota of 250 people under the Pacific Access programme, but only four had been accepted in the 10 months to May compared to 179 the previous year.

Mr Locke asked if Mr Muller would go so far as calling the Government's approach racist.

Mr Muller said "racist" was a word that should not be flung around but the policies were open to that interpretation.

* Immigration Minister Paul Swain yesterday responded to claims that a Tongan Government official had been asked to take a pregnancy test in order to attend a Pacific Forum meeting in Rotorua.

Meleseni Lomu had said she was insulted and decided not to travel to New Zealand for the meeting of economic ministers last week.

But Mr Swain said there was likely to have been a misunderstanding because Mrs Lomu already had a multiple entry visa to New Zealand.

An Immigration Service spokeswoman, Kathryn O'Sullivan, said the visa was issued in April and the High Commission in Nuku'alofa was adamant Mrs Lomu, 49, was never asked for a pregnancy test.

The Immigration Service accepted that officials in Tonga had previously been over-zealous about asking for pregnancy tests and they had been instructed to make the request only where there was a specific risk.

What they want

Submissions at the inquiry called for:

More New Zealand involvement to push for democracy in Tonga.

Better targeted NZ Aid spending at grassroots level.

Need for NZ Aid investment in early education, school and technical training rather than academic scholarships.