Via BeNZylpiperazine: the government is planning to deport bunker-in-the-bush kidnap plotter John Burrett, and Paul Swain has "personally signed Burrett's deportation order". But according to the story, Burrett is a New Zealand Citizen. This has to be wrong - because if it were true, both Swain and Burrett's lawyer would have to be grossly ignorant of the very clear statement in the Immigration Act 1987 that
no New Zealand citizen... is liable under this Act to removal or deportation from New Zealand in any circumstances.
But then, that's not quite true. Only Burrett's lawyer (who turns out to be... John Burrett) needs to be ignorant. Swain could just be evil.
If Burrett is a citizen, then the government needs to be seriously hauled over the coals over this. Deporting your own citizens is the sort of thing done by shitty despotic regimes which practice imprisonment without trial - not by a supposedly leading light of human rights like New Zealand.
2 comments:
I think it might be a journalistic error - I'm sure I read elsewhere that Burrett was a resident.
If he is an NZ citizen he may of course want to be deported - if he stays he'd have to serve his parole under supervision - if he gets deported he'll be unconditionally free in the UK. And able, after a few years, to apply for an new NZ passport and come right back here.
Posted by Rich : 3/01/2005 09:50:00 AM
I've seen him called a permanant resident as ell - though the source was Stephen Franks, and he's not the most reliable.
If he's actually a citizen, then he won't have to apply for a passport. Every NZ citizen can enter NZ at any time - it's affirmed in the Bill of Rights Act under "freedom of movement".
Posted by Idiot/Savant : 3/01/2005 10:47:00 AM
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