At the periphery of employment law, there’s immigration law. There was the high-profile wage theft linked to Darleen Tana via her husband’s failed business E Cycles NZ Ltd; Santiago Palma has a claim before the Employment Relations Authority and is simultaneously battling to have his migrant exploitation visa renewed, as this Stuff article explains:
Migrant who sank Darleen Tana's career faces unhappy exit from NZ | Stuff (25 February 2025)
We understand that even if Palma is forced to leave the country, he can still theoretically continue his claim against E Cycles director Christian Hoff-Nielsen personally, under Section 142W, although Hoff-Nielsen will probably continue his evasive conduct.
And an Auckland-born man of Indian descent was recently served with a deportation order which was later withdrawn (although unfortunately his parents have to leave). Daman Kumar nearly became the first Kiwi adult in history to be deported despite being born and spending his entire childhood, meaning he was nearly deported to a country he has never been to.
This was covered extensively by media and we have linked to two articles a week apart, whose titles are self-explanatory:
18-year-old Daman Kumar, who was facing deporation despite living in New Zealand all his life, granted residency - NZ Herald (20 February 2025)
Daman Kumar is 18 years and 9 months old. As Steve Kilgallon’s (Stuff) articles explain, Kumar was born a couple of months after a law change that says that a child born in New Zealand to overstayers is no longer entitled to New Zealand citizenship. The fact that he completed schooling and is now an adult did not appear to make any difference until media became involved.
Kumar’s new residence visa would allow him to legally work, or study.
As troubling as these situations are, it echoes what’s happening in the United States, as immigration consultant Alastair McClymont explained in the Stuff article.
The United States has a population of 345 million, about 65 times that of New Zealand. A legal journal article on the subject of statelessness is searchable via the website of Victoria University of Wellington which the author lectured at from 2010 to 2015. The link is here.
In January, clicks on that link spiked. It’s safe to assume that the vast majority of clicks came from the United States.
The author, Dr Sawyer pointed out that even if Kumar had been deported to a country he’d never set foot in, that would not have made him stateless, and New Zealand has ratified a statelessness convention.
Immigration think tank SEAP confirms this, but notes:
By ratifying the CRC, New Zealand is obligated to ensure that no child is left stateless in its territory. However, the lack of provisions safeguarding foundlings who are older than newborn but are not yet able to communicate information about their parents places them at risk of statelessness.
How the convention applies to young adults is not mentioned, but if this was not a breach of the convention, it must have come horribly close.
Tristam Price
Editor
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