Trio to be deported for working without visas

Immigration officials detained three men they believed were working without visas at a building site on the North Shore.

The group would be deported in the next few days, Immigration New Zealand’s manager of detention/ compliance, Bernard Maritz, said on Thursday last week.

A witness, who lives in Albany, near where the confrontation happened, says she was having coffee on the deck with her flatmates at about 6.30am on February 23 and saw the events unfold.

When immigration officers in stab-proof vests, and an Asian man, approached a parked vehicle on Georgia Terrace, she says.

‘‘The Asian man with immigration was a translator and was telling the man that he must go with the officers,’’ the witness, who did not

‘‘The Asian man with immigration was a translator and was telling the man that he must go with the officers.’’

Witness to the early morning sting

want to be named, says.

Maritz says the men are being detained under the Immigration Act, after Immigration New Zealand found they were allegedly working on a building site without visas.

The witness says the builder they approached had been working doing re-cladding in the area.

Maritz says they will be held in custody until their flights departed, in the following few days. This is standard practice for people facing deportation after overstaying.