Immigration Minister, Hon Tuariki Delamere, today issued a warning to members of the Pacific communities in New Zealand to ignore claims from a Maori group that it can protect illegal migrants from the New Zealand Immigration Service.

"In recent months, I have received a rash of documents from a group calling itself the Confederation of Chiefs of the United Tribes of Niu Tireni, which claims to represent a Sovereign Independent Maori Nation.

"These documents purport to show that Pacific people who have been served with a Removal Order for breaching the immigration laws are members of the so-called Sovereign Maori Nation and I am being asked to lift the removal orders on humanitarian grounds.

"There is anecdotal evidence that people are being invited to join this organisation with the promise that they will be protected from the immigration authorities.

"Let me make it very clear that the Confederation of Chiefs has no influence with me or the Immigration Service and anyone who joins them in that hope will be very disappointed.

"Although I have no evidence that payment is being asked to sign up, my advice is that any such request, if it is made, should be rejected immediately," said Mr Delamere.

Ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>