A policy to have more overstayers

The Herald reports:

The Labour Party cannot say how many additional Pacific Islanders will come to New Zealand under its proposal of visa-waiver travel.

The political party announced on Thursday morning it would expand visa-waiver access to citizens from the Pacific Islands Forum nations.

A Visa Waiver Visitor Visa allows citizens of particular countries to travel to New Zealand for up to three months without needing to first apply for a visa or pay a visa fee.

I’m all for making it as easy for people to visit NZ without paperwork and fees – so long as they are here to visit, not stay.

The Government agency also looked at the number of people who arrived between July 1, 2023 and June 30, 2026 who were recorded as having overstayed their visa.

The US topped this list, with 925 individuals or 0.1% of the total temporary arrivals in that time period of that nationality.

In this period, there were 31,054 temporary visa arrivals of people of Tongan nationality, with 666 recorded to be overstaying – 2.14%.

That’s the highest recorded overstaying rate of those listed by Immigration New Zealand and compares to a 0.13% when looking at the overstaying rate for all temporary arrivals in that period. Samoa followed Tonga at 1.25% and then Vietnam at 0.61%.

So the Tongan overstaying rate is 21 times higher than the US overstaying rate.

I would have a simple rule. If the overstaying rate is less than say 1 in 200 (0.5%), then that country gets visa-free travel. If it is more, they don’t.