Alastair McClymont: immigration lawyer on NZ-born teen's deportation to India being put on hold

A New Zealand-born Indian teen facing deportation has been granted a brief reprieve.

It's now been paused, as Associate Immigration Minister Chris Penk decides whether Daman Kumar will be sent to India, a country he's never visited. 

The 18-year-old's parents have been overstayers for more than two decades - with the three told to leave the country or face deportation.

Kumar's lawyer, Alastair McClymont, says his parents are responsible for their situation, and they need to face up.

"But Daman - what obligations did he have as a new-born baby, as an over-stayer? And he didn't even know anything about his immigration status until he became a teenager."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bread.

Speaker 2 (00:01):
The deportation of a New Zealand born teenager has been
put on hold and the Associate Immigration Minister now has
to decide whether he's allowed to stay for good. Eighteen
year old Damon Kumar was classed as an overstayer the
moment he was born because his mother was an overstayer.
He was set to be deported this week, but he's
made a last ditch appeal to the government through the media.

(00:21):
Damon's lawyer, Alista mcclemont joins me Alistair good.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
Evening, Yeah, Hi, Ryan, nice to be here.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Why has this process taken eighteen years.

Speaker 1 (00:30):
It's a really good question. I mean, there are a
large number of long term overstayers in this country and
basically the longer the youthorities don't do anything about it,
the easier it is for these people just to sort
of vanish in the system. And what this current situation
illustrates is the danger of when those long term overstayers
have children, and those children get to this sort of age,
it becomes really really complicated because of the humanitarian needs

(00:54):
for those childs.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Is are the parents still facing deportation or just yes, right, Soarents.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
And Darman and not the older sister because the older
sister was born as a citizen before the law change. Yes,
and that was in two thousand and six with the
law changed regarding what they call birthright citizenship, which is
a hot topic in the United States right now.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
This is a very sad situation for Daimon. Do you
accept that this is not his fault, but also not
the government's fault, his parents' fault.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
Yeah, that's exactly right. I mean, adults have responsibilities and obligations,
and you know they need to face up to those.
But day man, you know what obligations did he have
as a newborn baby, as an older star and he
didn't even know anything about his immigration status until he
became a teenager when he started to sort of put

(01:43):
pieces together. So yeah, absolutely, adults have obligations to you
abide the law just like everybody else.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
If so compassionately, you're saying, if we send them to
back to his parents' home country, he doesn't speak the language,
he doesn't know much about it, he's never lived there.
But if his parents are also deported at the same time,
then would they not go as a family unit?

Speaker 1 (02:06):
You know, one of the reasons that the parents came
here and went underground. Is because they come from what
they call those untouchable caste in India. You know, that
three thousand year old system where whatever cast you're born into,
you know, your you know, discriminated against the rest of
your life. That's one of the reasons that they came
to New Zealand to protect you know, their future and

(02:28):
future children from that sort of discrimination. So they're going
to go back and face that same sort of discrimination
and those same challenges, something that Damend Kumah knows absolutely
nothing about because he's been luckily raised in New Zealand
where we don't have such a horrible discriminatory system.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Alie to thank you, Aliston mclemont, Damon Kumar's lawyer. For
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