On April 1, the lawyer representing nine Chinese construction workers being held at Mt Eden Prison, the Honourable Matthew Robson, gained access to them only after getting the assistance of Green MP Ricardo Menendez. A tenth worker is being held elsewhere and we have not been told where.
MPs have a legal right to access prisoners at any time although it is a right that does not usually have to be invoked. It was invoked this time because the government departments responsible refused to even acknowledge Matt Robson’s repeated requests for a visit.
But we were only allowed one-hour with nine workers and a translator having to be used. We could only find out a fraction of what we needed to know to try and stop the planned deportations.