Comments spur call for Jones to quit

A migrant and racism action group is calling for a public apology and resignation of Shane Jones following his ‘‘racist’’ comments directed towards the Indian community.

Jones, a list MP for the New Zealand First party, recently shared his stance on Immigration New Zealand’s policy and told the Indian community to ‘‘tame down your rhetoric’’ if they didn’t like the changes to visa requirements.

Immigration New Zealand’s strict requirements on partnership visas means it will be harder for arranged-married couples to bring their spouses to New Zealand.

Migrant Workers Association and Love Aotearoa Hate Racism held a rally yesterday at Aotea Square in Auckland central, calling for a public apology.

‘‘We had demanded just an apology, but that’s just the minimum now looking at the outrage from migrant communities,’’ Anu Kaloti, from the Migrant Workers Association, said. ‘‘He needs to resign.’’

Jones had told RNZ in October the Indian community did not have a legitimate expectation in his view to ‘‘bring your whole village to New Zealand’’. If they didn’t like it, and were threatening to go home, Jones said they should ‘‘catch the next flight home’’.

The two groups also demanded a reduction in delays for processing of partnership-based visas, regulation of offshore education agents, a stop to bonded labour by detaching work visas from employers, and a residency pathway to people on a five-year work visa.