Rt Hon Winston Peters

New Zealand First Leader

Member of Parliament for Northland
9 AUGUST 2017

Cases of Foreign Student Fraud Just Tip of Iceberg

More than a third of decisions in May this year concerning Philippines students applying to study in New Zealand were uncovered as fraudulent, says New Zealand First Leader and Northland Member of Parliament, Rt Hon Winston Peters.

“Of 720 decisions Immigration New Zealand made in Manila, a total of 224 were found to have fraudulent documentation.

“The Minister of Immigration Michael Woodhouse paints this as a positive of Immigration NZ doing a great job investigating the problem.

“But this figure will only be the tip of the iceberg; the corruption and fraud begins in the Philippines and elsewhere, and then continues in New Zealand with students being exploited and ripped off as they try to get residency here.

“Other information New Zealand First obtained from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment reveals in March this year three offices in China identified 73 cases of fraudulent documentation.

“Also, between May 1, 2016, and May 19, 2017, a total of 261 Indian nationals were deported from New Zealand.

“These are only the cases that have been identified.

“Mr Woodhouse says the Labour Inspectorate does a great job investigating here in New Zealand but he does not say there are only the pitiful number of 54 officers for the entire country and that a record 226,000 work visas were issued to people from overseas in the past year.

“Thousands of them are students who are being exploited but are too afraid to come forward for fear of losing their visas and having to leave the country,” says Mr Peters.

ENDS

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