MBIE Overstate Ukraine Arrival Figures
It admits the figure of 519 Ukraine refugee "arrivals" was false and overstated, and that its formula was flawed. The new "correct" arrival figure is also in doubt.
The Ministry for Business, Innovation and Enterprise has admitted to providing false arrival data with regard to the Special Ukraine Visa Programme that was opened in March 2022.
At the outset of the war in Ukraine, the government estimated that up to 4000 Ukrainian refugees could benefit from the policy that formed part of the backbone of the government’s humanitarian effort to support Ukraine and the refugees fleeing the war.
The Kherson region flooded/ Supplied: Vladimir Rodynanskiy, Ukraine Association of NZ (UANZ)
Meetings with World Vision and Mahi for Ukraine have seen the government tweak the policy several times, with its announcement of a residency pathway for special visa holders being the latest.
As of 3 April 2023, about a year on from its introduction, Richard Owen, the acting General Manager for Border and Visa Operations, told the news outlet 519 applicants (out of 1405) had arrived in the country.
Joint UANZ and Papanui RSA fundraiser held on 1 July 2023
Subsequently, The Wigram sought a second run of data for the program and a much more detailed breakdown of the statistics by gender and age.
Then, in August, on the eve of the residency announcement, the data arrived by email.
In the second MBIE release, dated 12 August, Sam Foley, an INZ manager, admitted the 519 “arrivals” had wrongly included special visa holders who had left and re-entered, writing:
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