Christian Heritage Party Spokesperson Rosemarie Thomas commends the Labour Government on its recent immigration policies of reinforcing the tighter entry criteria and providing a conditional amnesty for overstayers. The previous Government put in measures to stop the leaking dam: these new measures will partially clean up the remaining pool of people.

However, despite these improvements, the Christian Heritage Party recommends that an unconditional amnesty be offered to all over stayers in New Zealand prior to 1 October 1999.

Rosemarie Thomas says it is clear that Border and Investigations will never have the resources or the ability to find the rest of the estimated ten to twenty thousand overstayers. At least by giving a general amnesty we would be able to measure the thousands of people who are in hiding and add them to our population statistics. Most of all this would allow them to get an IRD number and enter into taxable work and legitimate businesses.

These people constantly live in the fear of being caught and thrown out, but they are working hard to sustain themselves. Since there is no way of tracking most of them down to remove them a general amnesty would allow these people to live in the country without fear. Most importantly it would release staff at Border and Investigations to concentrate on the removal of the more recent overstayers (those who have overstayed since 1 October 1999) rather than on the massive numbers that have accumulated over the years.

Contact: Christian Heritage Immigration Spokespersons Rosemarie Thomas has worked as an Immigration Consultant since 1991. She can be contact on either (025) 846 627 or (04) 939 8466.

Party Leader Graham Capill (021) 661 766

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