While the controversy surrounding the government’s processing of visas for individuals with criminal records rages on, the federal government is employing drones to track former immigration detainees who have been released into the community.
Embattled Immigration Minister Andrew Giles declared today that he will remove eight visas for offenders who were born outside of the country and that he is looking into dozens more.
“The first job is making sure that visas which need to be cancelled are cancelled,” Giles stated today.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) reapproved thirty distinct revoked visas, which have since been subject to another review.
Giles stated today that he has already revoked eight of the visas.
He stated, “These are cases with some serious offending – some really serious offending where the decision frankly does not meet my expectations,” in a Sky News interview.
Giles disclosed in the same interview that the government is tracking former immigration detainees who were allowed to return to society after a ruling by the High Court using drone technology.
“They’re being watched over. We have invested a quarter of a billion dollars to support our law enforcement agencies,” the speaker stated.
This has made it possible to do things like track these folks with drones.
We know where they are.” Today’s contentious question period revolved around the issue of visa cancellations for convicted felons, following the government’s announcement yesterday that it would overturn a highly criticised ministerial directive from Giles from the previous year.
Giles’ decision to suspend deporting criminals who were born in New Zealand and had lived here for the majority of their lives has caused some anxiety in New Zealand.
Foreign Minister Winston Peters stated, “We do not want to see deportation of people with little or no connection to New Zealand, whose formative experiences were nearly all in Australia.”
