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The head of Immigration New Zealand says she will personally sign off on any further dawn arrests of overstayers.
The government wants such arrests to stop unless there is serious risk otherwise it's an extreme case.
It's been revealed nineteen people have been arrested at dawn between last July and April this year.
Of the 19, 10 were Chinese, 4 Indian, 2 Tongan, and one each from Samoa, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Alison McDonald, head of Immigration New Zealand, spoke with Ingrid Hipkiss.