Group braces for deportee influx
Hundreds more offenders have been deported to New Zealand than predicted when the Australian Government ramped up efforts to boot criminals out three years ago.
An advocacy group is bracing itself for potentially more than double the number of NZ citizenoffenders being deported from Australia over a five-year period.
In 2015, police sources said up to 1000 people could be sent back to New Zealand over the next half-decade. With two years remaining, the figure sits at 1180, excluding the hundreds who arrived before tracking started.
‘‘The projection in itself was way off. In fact, no-one has a clue,’’ said Helen Murphy, who runs the Christchurch branch of the Prisoners Aid and Rehabilitation Society. ‘‘Kiwi families in Australia are absolutely beside themselves now . . . they’re terrified, too scared to go on holidays and things like that because they fear they may not get let back in the country.’’
The offenders were kicked out of Australia due to an amendment to section 501 of the country’s Migration Act 1958. Between the 2013-14 and 2016-17 financial years, the number of visa cancellations on character grounds increased by more than 1400 per cent due to the amendment. More than 1280 people from all nationalities were kicked out of Australia over the 2016-17 financial year, and 620 New Zealanders were deported during the 2017 calendar year.
New Zealand was the most common country for deportees. The United Kingdom was second, with 124 deported in 2017 – nearly 500 fewer than New Zealand.
Immigration New Zealand has deported 10 Australians since 2013. Assistant general manager Peter Devoy said reasons ranged from breaching visa conditions tousing a false identity.
An Australian Department of Home Affairs spokesperson said the large number of Kiwis deported reflected the size of the community in Australia, ‘‘which is Australia’s largest non-citizen cohort’’. Known as 501s, the offenders returning to New Zealand came with a raft of different convictions, ranging anywhere from driving offences to murder.
Brent McCorkindale, 39, was among them, but served just four months in prison for driving, drugs and fraud convictions. The maximum sentence for his crimes was 15 months, meaning he was still eligible for deportation. Having called Australia home since the age of 9, McCorkindale struggled when he arrived in Christchurch, but living here had helped him provide better for his four children still living in Brisbane.
He secured a job as a mechanic soon after arriving in Christchurch, and he sent his family $200 a week to support them, he said. ‘‘I’ve got my visa back now. They gave it back to me about six months after I got here.’’
The New Zealand Government introduced the Returning Offender (Information and Management) Act in November 2015. Department of Corrections deputy national commissioner Andy Milne said not all Kiwi deportees were subject to a Returning Offender Order, but 764 people had been as of June 12. Of those, 305 were currently subject to an order.