Deportation for breach of lockdown
A woman and her husband have been ordered to leave New Zealand after she breached Covid-19 lockdown rules by fleeing Auckland in the back of a van.
Amanpreet Kaur and Simranpreet Singh, both citizens of India, pleaded guilty in 2021 to failing to comply with the Covid19 Public Health Response Act.
A summary of facts entered at Rotorua District Court showed Singh had been living in Rotorua, while Kaur lived in Auckland.
‘‘Their ongoing separation as a result of the restrictions imposed under alert level 4 resulted in the pair formulating a plan to have the defendant Kaur brought to Rotorua.’’
On the day of their breach, September 15, 2021, Auckland was in alert level 4 while the rest of the country was in alert level 2.
Kaur hid in the back of a van driven by an associate, an essential worker who was permitted to cross the Auckland border.
She was dropped off at a service station in Tauranga, where Singh was waiting to take her to Rotorua.
However, their scheme unravelled when Singh asked his employer about getting his wife a job. That led to police searching his home and finding Kaur there.
Immigration New Zealand issued the couple deportation liability notices due to their offending, on the grounds they were not of ‘‘good character’’.
They appealed against those notices to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal, which was declined, in a recently-released decision.
The document showed the couple argued their rule-breaking was driven by ‘‘emotional and financial desperation’’.
Kaur had been ‘‘stranded’’ in Auckland suffering from anxiety and depression and deporting them back to India was a ‘‘disproportionate consequence’’ to their offending, they said.
Both had tested negative for Covid-19 after the breach.
The tribunal noted the pair were discharged without conviction in Rotorua District Court, in part because a mark on their criminal records could affect their immigration status.
The judge ruled the consequences of a conviction would be ‘‘out of all proportion to the gravity of the offending’’.
However, the tribunal said, the couple had no ‘‘legitimate expectation’’ as temporary visa holders that they could remain in New Zealand under the circumstances.
They had ‘‘genuinely concerning circumstances’’ – among them, fears they would struggle to find work in India and feel shame and distress in their community if deported – but those circumstances were not exceptional, the tribunal ruled.
It upheld the couple’s deportation liability notices, but issued them with fivemonth working visas so they could get their affairs in order before leaving New Zealand. They must depart by mid-August.