Are other Labour MPs hiding fugitives from the law?

The Herald reports on another case of a fugitive from authorities being hidden by Taito Philip Field when he was a Minister and a Labour MP.

Ms Phothisarn arrived in New Zealand on a visitor’s permit in May 1996, and had been living in Auckland illegally since August of that year.

She narrowly avoided capture during an Immigration Service raid on her Skipton Rd, Mangere, home in September 2002, but was caught when officers raided again in November.

By December, she had been issued a removal order and was shifting from house to house with her infant son to avoid the authorities.

It was at a meeting with Field in late December that the then-Labour MP offered her and her son, and new husband Sompong Srikaew, accommodation in a house in Prangley Ave, Mangere.

Now while MPs should be helping people with immigration problems, this absolutely does not extend to hiding and housing people who have been served a deportation order.

Did none of Field’s colleagues know he was doing this? Can Helen Clark confirm that none of her other MPs and Ministers were or are doing this? And did the Ministers of Immigration who fell over themselves to grant so many dispensations to people Field advocated for, know that Field was hiding people from their own Department?

Regardless of whether or not Field committed any crimes, the issue of Field’s political activities is something Clark can be questioned on. When Helen Clark defended Field as just helping his constituents, did she know of the fact he was hiding illegal immigrants? Is she happy for her Ministers of the Crown not to uphold the law, but to undermine it?