Facing deportation – they should have been drug dealers

The Herald reports:

Associate Immigration Minister Poto Williams’s refusal to intervene for a couple who have been fighting to stay in New Zealand for four years was last week described by Northland MP Matt King as “gutting”.

“A petition with more than 3000 signatures in support of Peter and Lina Jia’s plea to stay has been been ignored,” King said. “The community has been behind Peter and Lina Jia the whole way. This is a perfect opportunity for the Minister to use her discretion.”

The couple, Christians with a 10-year-old daughter, Cici, feared that they would be persecuted if forced to return to China.

The Associated Press reported in 2018 that ” Xi is waging the most severe systematic suppression of Christianity in the country since religious freedom was written into the Chinese constitution in 1982″ so their fears seem well grounded.

His parents initially lived in Mangonui for a year, then moved to Waimate North, where their son set up his business, growing strawberries, watermelons and soybeans, which they sell at markets and roadside stalls around the Bay of Islands.

During peak season they employ five part-time staff.

Growing strawberries isn’t as cool it seems as importing drugs from Europe.