Turei Metiria: Immigration Advisers Licensing Bill — Third Reading 
Turei Metiria: Immigration Advisers Licensing Bill — Third Reading 
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METIRIA TUREI (Green) 
: 
 I want to make a reasonably short call on this legislation. The Green Party is supporting this Immigration Advisers Licensing Bill and we have done so from the very beginning when my colleague Keith Locke gave a first reading speech about it. We have followed the bill reasonably closely through the select committee process. We have always been very keen to see greater transparency for and control over those who provide advice to immigrants. We get a lot of those kinds of cases coming to the Green Party—to me when I was the immigration spokesperson in my first term of Parliament and to Keith Locke now and during his first term of Parliament as well.  
People come to the Green Party because they see us as being the only people interested in the human rights aspect of their issues. We are seen as being the only people who will take seriously the fact that they have been treated so badly—largely by the Immigration Service itself but increasingly by those who are providing them with advice and charging them considerable amounts of money to do so. Some of the cases are very well-known cases to do with refugees and asylum seekers but heaps of people who come to us have enormous difficulty in dealing with the Immigration Service and with understanding the process.  
Part of the reason that we need immigration advisers is that they can give immigrants the kind of advice and process advice that they simply do not get from the Immigration Service because it tends to be very closed about the information it gives out and the kinds of criteria it makes assessments on. Because in some ways the Immigration Service acts as the enforcement agency for immigration issues as well people are frightened to get information from it. So it is really important that people have an independent person they can go to for advice.  
But when those advisers are then making a profit out of those immigrants’ real needs and very insecure situations they need also to be severely controlled in order to make sure that good advice is given and that they do not misuse the process. There have been cases where people have made serious claims against immigration advisers because those advisers have seriously misused the process and have ripped people off.  
We are talking about people who come to this country because they want to be part of the New Zealand community. They have looked at going to other countries but they have decided that New Zealand is the place for them. They love it here their children are here and their schooling is here. They feel that there are huge opportunities for them here. They have made enormous sacrifices to come all the way around the globe to New Zealand. They deserve respectful treatment by New Zealanders.  
Sometimes migrants do not get that respectful treatment; that is really obvious. They do not get it either socially—with the level of abuse that is often directed at immigrants and with the inability of New Zealanders sometimes to deal with language barriers and to be respectful of the fact that not everyone speaks English as perfectly as some New Zealanders might like to think they do—or from State agencies and private companies that are involved in giving them advice as well. These people deserve respect from us for their commitment to our country and for just being human beings they deserve to be treated justly and with human rights. So we are very pleased to see at least some attempt is being made in this legislation to protect new immigrants who are looking for that advice.  
Some really sad stories have come to me. I had one case where a family was here that had had some issues with its visas and family members had overstayed. The main applicant was the husband of the family and there were two children at high school doing very well. Instead of the Immigration Service and enforcement agencies dealing with the husband who was the main applicant they went to the house just before school finished one day and arrested the wife. They held her in custody. She was held in the women’s prison here in Wellington.  
The purpose for holding the wife even though she was not the applicant was that the Immigration Service and enforcement agencies believed that if they held the wife then the rest of the family would not go underground but rather they would try to get her out because she was so vulnerable. Her language skills were OK but only just. She had religious issues around the food she ate that were not respected by the prison service. She was stripped and treated very badly while she was in prison and she was in prison for a week before the authorities finally decided and arranged to deport her and her family.  
The treatment of this family at the hands of the State and some of the people who were giving them advice was extremely poor. The family had to rely on a very good lawyer who worked very very hard with us and with others to try to remedy their situation. It was extremely difficult for the family and they were deported. Thankfully in the end they were given an opportunity to return to New Zealand after they had paid their deportation fees and their air tickets and they have been here ever since. The children are again at school. One has gone to Otago University and is doing very well there.  
This family are committed to this country and their treatment at the hands of the State agencies and some others involved in their case has been terrible. It is only due to the lawyer who worked for them and the community that supported them that they have been able to make some gains.  
That is just one example of how vulnerable immigrants are when they come to this country and how difficult it is for them to get good advice and to manage the bureaucracy. When they are then subject to immigration advisers who are setting out to be exploitative and to reap the profits without providing the service really we have a whole sector of the New Zealand community—and I believe it is the New Zealand community—that is being abused and exploited. That abuse should stop; it needs to stop.  
So I am pleased about the bill. The Greens will be voting for it. No doubt there are some issues and some things will be missed in it—not all legislation is perfect—but none the less it provides some level of protection to what is becoming one of the most vulnerable sectors of the New Zealand community and we are pleased to see that. Thank you.