Eighteen-year-old Navjot Singh has lived his entire life in New Zealand without legal status after his parents overstayed their work visas. His request for residency through ministerial intervention was denied last week by Associate Immigration Minister Chris Penk, RNZ reports.
He has never attended school because he is an overstayer and now faces deportation to India — a country he has never visited — after his bid for residency was rejected.
According to RNZ, Singh was born in Auckland in 2007, a year after changes to the Citizenship Amendment Act 2006 ended automatic citizenship for children born to non-resident parents. As a result, he grew up stateless — denied access to education, healthcare, and basic rights.
Singh told RNZ that he first learned about his situation when he was eight years old.
“I asked my mum why I wasn’t at school, and then she had to tell me. … Ever since, I’ve been living in fear. I couldn’t even be honest with my friends.”
Singh’s father was deported when he was just five days old, and his mother lost her legal status in 2012. With no connection to India, he fears he will struggle to survive there.
“I don’t speak Hindi. I’ve heard that people with higher qualifications can’t find jobs there, so what would I do?”
Immigration lawyer Alastair McClymont, representing Singh, called the decision “inhumane” and urged the government to adopt a fairer approach. He told RNZ, “It makes no sense to deport children who have grown up here to a foreign country,” he said. McClymont said the government should align its laws with those of countries such as Australia and the United Kingdom, which grant citizenship to children who have lived there for 10 years.
“That would resolve the problem for children born to parents without a valid visa or on temporary visas. Once a child has lived here for 10 years from birth, they should be eligible for citizenship.”
Community leaders, including Daljit Singh, president of the Supreme Sikh Society, have rallied behind Navjot. “He was born here and is part of our community,” Daljit Singh told RNZ.
“What harm will children like Navjot bring to New Zealand? We shouldn’t punish these children because it wasn’t their fault.”
Both Green Party and Labour MPs have called for a policy review, saying deporting such children is unjust.
A spokesperson for Immigration Minister Erica Stanford told RNZ that there was no policy work underway on people born in New Zealand after 2006 to parents without legal status, but that individual cases could be considered through the Immigration Protection Tribunal or ministerial intervention.
“The minister has confidence in these avenues to consider such cases on their individual circumstances as they arise.”
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