Like Brown, many 501s have lost their identity as Māori, the Indigenous people of New Zealand, and mostly think of themselves as Australian – usually because they migrated to Australia as children and have never known any other identity. This makes their deportation, to a country they’ve barely even known, that much harder. Kylie, 40, also fits the bill.Kylie – who doesn’t want to share her last name, concerned it will upset the progress of her personal injury claim against the Queensland Government for abuse suffered in youth detention facilities – settled in Australia in 1989 with her family, when the country had a warm immigration agreement with New Zealand. There were good things during her Cairns upbringing – work on fishing trawlers, having five children – though Kylie’s life was irreversibly impacted by alcoholism, intravenous drugs, meth, and violence against her and her kids. Kylie was imprisoned in Australia then deported with fraud and dishonesty charges, and “hit an all-time low” after settling in Wellington in 2017, where she received fresh convictions for shoplifting and dishonesty. “I could have had home detention but I asked the judge to put me in prison. I wanted rehabilitation in prison because the waiting list [for rehab] out here in the community would have been 9 to 12 months.”Brown is a “501,” the colloquial term given to over 2,500 people sent “back” to New Zealand from Australia since 2015, deported under Section 501 of Australia’s Migration Act because the person either fails the Act’s character test, has a new criminal charge, or simply hangs around with the wrong crowd.
“Individuals detained and removed by the ABF include those who have been convicted of crimes involving serious assault, sexual offences, sexually based crimes involving a child, drugs, robbery and other violent offences. These individuals are a risk to the Australian community and have lost their right to remain in the country,” the statement said. “The Australian Government will respond to any legal action if and when it is initiated.”In response to questions from VICE World News about the forthcoming lawsuit from 501s, the Australian Border Force said in an emailed statement, “The Australian Government has a responsibility to protect the community from the risk of harm arising from foreign nationals who choose to engage in criminal activity.”