Watchdog accused of overstayer slant

Secrecy surrounds a special unit in the Immigration Service used to process and review applications for visas and permits from countries deemed to be high-risk.

But it has been accused of declining permits more on the basis of applicants being potential overstayers than terrorists.

Immigration Minister David Cunliffe refused yesterday to say how many people have been identified by the special immigration profiling group (IPG) as having fraudulently applied for entry to New Zealand.

"I am not prepared ... to put that information in the public domain as it is sensitive to the work of the profiling group," he told Parliament.

Later, for obvious diplomatic reasons, he refused to say which countries are deemed higher-risk.

But the Immigration Service won't even say what the criteria are for "high-risk" countries.

It told a parliamentary select committee last month: "The specific criteria for determining higher risk are restricted for security and international relations reasons and to avoid prejudice to the maintenance of the law and are not available for general publication."

The group was established in June last year, a month after New Zealand First leader Winston Peters revealed the presence in New Zealand of former members of Saddam Hussein's regime, unbeknown to the Government.

It processes applications from 23 countries deemed higher-risk and is reviewing visas and permits from those countries that have been approved since May 2003. It has about 1000 more of the backlog to review.

The percentage of declined applications from the unnamed countries has risen from about 9 per cent to about 24 per cent under the group's scrutiny.

But Green MP Keith Locke says the difference in approvals is the result of the group blocking entry to New Zealand of people it believes may become overstayers, not just people for security reasons.

New Zealand has stopped deporting people to Iraq, Myanmar, Sudan, Somalia and Zimbabwe on advice from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Mr Locke says the group is declining many applications from those countries of ordinary people wanting to visit relatives in New Zealand because if they overstayed, the Government would follow UN advice and not deport them.

He suggests the trend is "due primarily to not terrorism dangers ... but the immigration profiling group's massive over-reaction to overstayer problems".

Mr Cunliffe denied Mr Locke's claim, saying the group made a valuable contribution to border security.