A South Korean woman’s medically assisted deportation cost New Zealand taxpayers $85,000 after both she and the Korean government declined to pay.
The woman had overstayed her visa since 2012 and was rediscovered in 2024 after being hospitalised following two strokes. She required two medical escorts and specialised air transport after undergoing brain surgery and rehabilitation.
Figures from 2024 showed just over half of deportees were overstayers, 30% had breached other visa conditions and 16% were deported following criminal offending. Recent figures estimated about 19,000 people are currently overstaying their visas, including 6,559 who arrived within the past three years.
This story has been republished with permission from RCR Bites. For news like this direct and free to your Inbox every day, go to biteme.news to sign up for RCR Bites.
If you are a media outlet interested in republishing RCR Bites stories, please contact inbox@rcr.media.
Stop all South Koreans entering NZ until they pay the bill and threaten to return those that are there.
Would have been a good deckhand on a submarine. Then she could have worked her passage home.
We’ve got plenty of money
Look at the way NZ super is dished out
Politicians don’t want to touch anything that may cost them votes
So they keep kicking the can down the road
The days of giving a toss about the country are over