Failure led to deportation scare

Immigration New Zealand unnecessarily detained the stepfather of murdered teen Karla Cardno due to a lack of information and a failure to prioritise deportation cases.

Mark Middleton was threatened with deportation in April, despite having lived in New Zealand since he arrived as a preapproved British migrant at four years old.

A report sparked by the case, and the case of a woman deported after reporting a serious crime, has found that Immigration NZ acted on incomplete information when detaining Middleton overnight.

The agency has also failed to properly prioritise deportation cases and determine when it is appropriate to place someone in custody.

The report’s author, lawyer Michael Heron QC, has recommended that the organisation develop a system of prioritising cases according to the risk of greatest harm posed to New Zealand.

Immigration NZ says it accepts all the recommendations, but Middleton remains unconvinced it will change.

‘‘This has been going on clearly since the ’70s, when they were doing dawn raids on lovely Island people,’’ Middleton said.

‘‘The culture hasn’t changed, to my knowledge, since then. They can say it’s changing, but it hasn’t changed.’’

Middleton’s stepdaughter Cardno was 13 when she was kidnapped, raped and murdered by Paul Dally in 1989. In 2001, Middleton was sentenced to nine months in prison over death threats he made against Dally.

In April, an Immigration NZ staffer and police officers arrived at Middleton’s workplace to serve him with a deportation notice.

He was detained overnight at Wellington Central Police Station while Immigration NZ, which only had a record of him arriving in New Zealand at age 30 after visiting Fiji, attempted to clarify his residency.

He was later granted a permanent residence visa by Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi.

‘‘My imprisonment was appalling,’’ Middleton said. He is considering taking Immigration NZ to court.

Heron said Immigration NZ lacked ‘‘a clear and uniform system for prioritising cases’’, and staff at times reacted to immediate cases of possible deportation without thinking of overall priorities.

‘‘The focus should be on a riskbased priority system.’’

Immigration NZ chief executive Carolyn Tremain said that since the reviewed cases, deportation and detention cases now needed higher-level sign-off.

‘‘The review found that the decisions in the two cases were isolated, and that there is a good team culture where it is the norm to discuss and consult colleagues or managers.’’

‘‘The culture hasn’t changed.’’ Mark Middleton