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New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has apologised. She apologised for an immigration crackdown in the 1970s against Pacific Islanders who had come to the country after the world war two.
The ‘Dawn Raids’ targeted people who overstayed their visas, deporting them to their countries of origin. They disproportionately affected Pacific Islanders, despite most visa overstayers being from the UK, Australia and South Africa.
The Dawn Raids were a crackdown in New Zealand from the mid-1970s to the early 1980s on illegal overstayers from the Pacific Islands. These visa overstayers had actually come to work and boost Australian economy after the world war two.
The raids were first introduced in 1973 by Norman Kirk’s Labour government and were continued by Rob Muldoon’s National government. These operations involved special police squads conducting raids on the homes and workplaces of overstayers throughout New Zealand usually at dawn.
Overstayers and their families were often prosecuted and then deported back to their countries. Dawn Raids were particularly controversial as despite Pacific Islanders only making up one-third of overstayers, they accounted for 86% of those arrested and prosecuted.
The Dawn Raids were a product of the New Zealand government’s immigration policies to attract more Pacific Islanders. Since the 1950s, the New Zealand government had encouraged substantial emigration from several Pacific countries including Samoa, Tonga, and Fiji to fill a labour shortage caused by the post-war economic boom.
Consequently, the Pacific Islander population in New Zealand had grown to 45,000 by 1971, with a substantial number overstaying their visas. During the late 1960s and early 1970s, New Zealand’s economy had declined due to several international developments: a decline in international wool prices in 1966, Britain joining the European Economic Community in 1973 which deprived NZ of a major market for dairy products, and the 1973 oil crisis. This economic downturn led to increased crime, unemployment and other social ailments, which disproportionately affected the Pacific Islander community.
Jacinda Ardern who was seen in a video apologising before a gathering of the affected families formal tendered unreserved apology. Pacific Islander communities in New Zealand still suffer and carry the scars from the policy, Arden said, adding that she hoped the apology has brought some much-needed closure.
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Ardern spoke at a gathering of affected families, Pacific Island dignitaries and government officials in Auckland.
Princess Mele Sui’ilikutapu of Tonga has welcomed the New Zealand government’s attempt to address the inhumane and unjust treatment to people calling the apology a dawn for the community.
Beginning in the early 1970s, the Dawn Raids saw government forces launch early morning operations in the homes and workplaces of people who had overstayed their visas.
New Zealand had welcomed thousands of migrants from Pacific Islands after the end of World War Two, needing workers for its booming economy. By 1976, the government says there were more than 50,000 Pacific Islanders in the country.
But an economic crisis in the early 1970s caused unemployment to rise. Raids began in 1974 and continued through the decade. The policy spawned mounting criticism from religious, political and civil groups until it was eventually halted by the start of the 1980s.
