ISSUE
Friday, August 15, 2025
Volume 16 . Issue 72
Leader of the National Party Chris Luxon says that their government will restore expired visas of temporary migrant workers who have been locked out of New Zealand’s closed borders since March 2020.
Luxon was speaking with the Indian Weekender in an exclusive interview (special video show, Walk in the Park), where several important issues affecting the Kiwi-Indian community and the wider New Zealanders were discussed.
When asked about the plight of thousands of temporary migrant workers who were otherwise ordinarily resident in New Zealand and were locked out of the country when the borders had to be closed suddenly to safeguard the country from a raging global Covid pandemic two years ago, Luxon said emphatically “the government hasn’t dealt with that issue at all or even talked about the issue.”
On the question of how a National government would deal with the issue differently, Luxon said, “We feel that there is a real need to get them back into this country.”
When further asked if a National government would restore their expired visas, Luxon said, “We want to look into that absolutely.”
Notably, more than 21,000 temporary migrant workers who had legitimate NZ visas and were living in the country for years before being caught on the wrong side of the country’s suddenly closed borders had been left out in the cold after having spent tens of thousands of dollars and many valuable years of their working lives in the country.
Those migrant workers had been on different temporary visas, including student visas, post-study work visas, essential skill work visa, work to residence visas along with family visas, with many years of pending validity on those visas.
The government had only once made the announcement in September 2020 allowing essential work visa holders (and work to residence) whose visas were valid and had valid job offers with their respective current employers, which allowed a paltry number of less than 600 temporary migrants to enter the country.
In the last two years of the closed borders regime, visas for the most of the temporary migrant workers stuck overseas have expired and the current government had turned their back on them.
To view the full show pls see here.
Leader of the National Party Chris Luxon says that their government will restore expired visas of temporary migrant workers who have been locked out of New Zealand’s closed borders since March 2020.
Luxon was speaking with the Indian Weekender in an exclusive interview (special video show, Walk in...
Leader of the National Party Chris Luxon says that their government will restore expired visas of temporary migrant workers who have been locked out of New Zealand’s closed borders since March 2020.
Luxon was speaking with the Indian Weekender in an exclusive interview (special video show, Walk in the Park), where several important issues affecting the Kiwi-Indian community and the wider New Zealanders were discussed.
When asked about the plight of thousands of temporary migrant workers who were otherwise ordinarily resident in New Zealand and were locked out of the country when the borders had to be closed suddenly to safeguard the country from a raging global Covid pandemic two years ago, Luxon said emphatically “the government hasn’t dealt with that issue at all or even talked about the issue.”
On the question of how a National government would deal with the issue differently, Luxon said, “We feel that there is a real need to get them back into this country.”
When further asked if a National government would restore their expired visas, Luxon said, “We want to look into that absolutely.”
Notably, more than 21,000 temporary migrant workers who had legitimate NZ visas and were living in the country for years before being caught on the wrong side of the country’s suddenly closed borders had been left out in the cold after having spent tens of thousands of dollars and many valuable years of their working lives in the country.
Those migrant workers had been on different temporary visas, including student visas, post-study work visas, essential skill work visa, work to residence visas along with family visas, with many years of pending validity on those visas.
The government had only once made the announcement in September 2020 allowing essential work visa holders (and work to residence) whose visas were valid and had valid job offers with their respective current employers, which allowed a paltry number of less than 600 temporary migrants to enter the country.
In the last two years of the closed borders regime, visas for the most of the temporary migrant workers stuck overseas have expired and the current government had turned their back on them.
To view the full show pls see here.
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