Call for student visa extension

Press, 22 June 1989, Page 7

Call for student visa extension

PA Wellington The Government should give all Chinese students in New Zealand an automatic year-long extension to their visas, says a China specialist, Professor John Minford, of Auckland. It should also say that after that, applications for permanent residence will be viewed sympathetically. If the Government did riot take this action, it could expect a flood of applications for political asylum. Professor Minford said the issue involved only several hundred students — not 15,000, nor even 2000. A Ministry of External Relations and Trade official said yesterday some applications for political asylum had been received this . wriek. He declined to say how many. The applications will be considered by a Ministry committee, which includes immigration officers. This will meet next month, but the official said the students’ applications would probably not be considered then as they would take

time to process. On Monday, a Welling-ton-based Chinese student whose visa will run out next month said he was considering seeking political asylum out of fear of repercussions back home for his anti-Chinese Government activities in New Zealand. Professor Minford said he and his colleagues had been approached by students considering political asylum, but had recommended they wait and see what the Government policy would be. He said Australia was looking at giving Chinese students permanent residency on humanitarian grounds, and New Zealand should do the same. If political asylum was given, it would be unlikely the student could ever return home, which was not good for the student, New Zealand, or New Zealand-China relations. The Chinese Embassy warned last week-end it would treat those seeking political asylum seriously. It has since said it would seek guidance from Peking if the issue arose.

Students have said their families in China could face serious repercussions.