Advice against rorts by student travellers
New Zealand universities say they are not encouraging Chinese students to circumvent border controls by coming through third countries.
Travel restrictions imposed to prevent spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus do not apply to foreigners who have been in, or transited through, mainland China if they have spent 14 days in a third country before arriving in New Zealand.
About 6000 Chinese students enrolled in university courses here are affected by the border closure but some are getting in by visiting countries such as Thailand and Malaysia, and having done their 14-day quarantine overseas, they do not have to self-isolate on arrival.
Universities New Zealand represents eight universities nationally and the chair of its international policy committee, Grant Guildford, said it did not know how many students were using this method of entry but social media chatter indicated it was happening.
‘‘We have seen on We Chat and forums like that, travel agents leaping into the breach and offering a two-week travel package to third party countries that will allow students to then move from there to Australia or New Zealand.’’
It has been reported a growing number of Chinese students – nearly 1500 in two days – were taking advantage of this exception and thousands more were expected this week.
Guilford, vice-chancellor of Victoria University, said Australian universities were recommending students take this route but New Zealand vicechancellors had decided against this approach. ‘‘When people ask, we draw their attention to the fact that it is approved by Immigration NZ but we are not going to be going out and actively encouraging or supporting it.
‘‘The main concern we have is the safety of those students in those third countries, we do not know what they are doing or where they might be.
‘‘We also know the big downsides of travel bans is that it encourages desperate travellers to be less than honest about where they have been and how long they have been there.’’
Immigration NZ was unable to say how many travellers in total from mainland China were entering New Zealand via countries that were not among the 60-plus with border restrictions.
Immigration NZ said it required travellers to be honest about their previous travel movements when completing an arrivals card but it only asked about their last port of call.
Travellers had to prove they had been outside mainland China for at least 14 days before attempting to travel to New Zealand, and those who did not meet those requirements would be refused entry.
Canterbury University said a small number of students had spent time outside China before arriving here.
Otago University said it was aware of three students who had entered this way but it was part of pre-existing travel plans made before border restrictions began. A further 65 Chinese students from mainland China or who had visited or travelled through China before coming to the university had self-isolated and only one was still finishing their quarantine period.
Canterbury University has just under 500 Chinese students stranded by the border closure but is offering online learning wherever practical, and last week 176 students were logged on to the university’s online academic platform.