An immigration lawyer says airlines are taking advantage of the Government, which is spending record sums deporting people convicted of minor crimes like drink-driving
An immigration lawyer has discovered one of his clients was flown out of the country at a cost of $57,000.
Aaron Martin said there was no need to have spent that much. “The client’s New Zealand partner had actually offered to pay for his flight back to Angola, which would have been about $1,600."
And that's not the worst of it. Immigration NZ is spending even more to deport some people. The costs to deport people from 2017 until 2023 was $6.4 million. This included flights, accommodation, escorts, travel documents and, during the pandemic, Covid and other medical tests.
Earlier this year one individual was deported at a cost of $65,287. It included one-way flights for the individual to South Africa and return flights for three airline security escorts.
That's the most the government has ever spent on a single deportation.
READ MORE: * What the hell’s going on with migrant workers? * Solomons PM joins Pacific push for NZ visa waiver access
“And when I did a bit of digging, what I discovered is ... essentially the Government just rolls over and has its tummy tickled by the airlines," Martin says. "So the airlines say, yeah sure we'll carry that person but we're wanting three people to accompany [them] and this is our bill and immigration just sign it off.”
In Martin’s client’s case, three people were required to escort him, but he questions why that was necessary.
“It was a drink-drive conviction ... and immigration were prepared to accept that there needed to be three people to accompany him because he was a security risk because of a drink-drive conviction.
“It was just the biggest load of bullshit I've ever seen in my life.”
In order for someone to re-enter New Zealand after being deported they may be required to pay back any costs incurred.
Martin said this requirement for his client was waived after a complaint to the Ombudsman.
Between 2018 and 2023 just under 1500 people were deported.
During the same period just over 1700 people self-deported which is when people pay for their own flights and depart in the period in which they could have been served a deportation order.
"The decision of whether an escort is required is made by individual airlines... This means that some costs relating to custodial deportations are unavoidable and outside of INZs control." - Richard Owen, Immigration NZ
Martin said it was unclear why the costs would be this high but said the amount overall would have gone up post-Covid.
“You've got a lot of airlines who might have discontinued services so the practicalities of getting deportees to a destination may be limited... there might have been direct routes to a particular destination, and now there aren't so there's more flights involved.
“And also, we all know that the costs of flights have gone up. So I think that there's those issues that are going to be confronting them in that space.”
However, he said his experience was that Immigration NZ did not “shop around” for flights.
“You kind of wonder how much is the New Zealand government being fleeced? And how much money has been recovered from deportees to repay these expenses, given the law says that they are to be repaid if there's a visa subsequently going to be issued to them?
“I suspect the answer is practically zero.”
Immigration NZ general manager Richard Owen said costs for deporting an individual could vary substantially depending on the situation.
"For example, if an escort is required, the cost of deporting the individual is significantly higher. The decision of whether an escort is required is made by individual airlines, and involves NZ Police completing a risk assessment, liaising with the airline and determining whether police or security escorts are required from a safety or airline perspective.
"This means that some costs relating to custodial deportations are unavoidable and outside of INZ's control. Some airlines also have a mandatory escort requirement where a deportee was convicted for any type of violent offending."
