Woman with lingerie, man with habit among thousands barred

A woman carrying a large quantity of lingerie and leather, as well as a man who admitted to regularly using class A drugs were among thousands of people refused entry into New Zealand in the past year.

The woman from Estonia said she was coming to New Zealand from London on a holiday, Immigration New Zealand’s annual report said.

But when she arrived in Auckland, the Risk Targeting Programme identified she has been to New Zealand in the past on a working holiday visa. Customs officers searched her luggage and found a large quantity of lingerie and leather outfits.

The woman was one of 1201 people denied entry at New Zealand’s border between July 2017 and June 2018.

The report said INZ found an advertisement on a New Zealand website for the woman, in which she offered companionship and sexual services.

INZ said providing commercial sexual services was not unlawful but it was not allowed on a temporary visa. The woman was refused entry and left on the next available flight.

Another person denied entry was a young British man who arrived from Melbourne into Queenstown in January 2018.

He was selected to be searched by Customs officers because of his nervous behaviour. Swabs taken of his luggage came back positive for drugs.

The report said the man admitted to being a regular user of class A and class C drugs, having previously being convicted in Australia for being in possession of MDMA.

When speaking to INZ, the man said he was in New Zealand to visit a friend he regularly partied and took drugs with. ‘‘He also admitted to arranging his sister to send him three Christmas cards – each containing a gram of cocaine. Candidly, he also admitted to selling drugs in both Australia and the United Kingdom to finance his ‘party lifestyle’.’’

The man was on a plane back to Melbourne nine hours later, never reaching his planned destination of Rarotonga, it said.

In addition to those denied entry at the border, a further 3378 passengers were stopped from boarding their flight to New Zealand. Of this number, 1727 didn’t have a visa, 908 didn’t meet entry requirements, 436 were subject to immigration alerts, 204 had no valid travel documents and 103 were travelling on a false passport or there were identification concerns.

INZ national manager Stephanie Greathead said with the steady increase of people travelling to and from New Zealand, risk prevention needed to be improved. More than 6.8 million travellers came to New Zealand in the 2017/2018 financial year.

‘‘The increasing volume means we have had to enhance our ability to understand and prevent the risks this may present, while ensuring genuine travellers still have as close to a seamless border experience as possible,’’ Greathead said.

INZ worked with Customs, the Ministry for Primary Industries and the police to manage the country’s border, she said.