Deportees are continuing to pour back into New Zealand following a change to Section 501 of Australia's Migration Act, which means all non-citizens who fail a character test are sent home.
Of the 1690 deportees who have been sent back to New Zealand since the start of 2015, more than 40 percent have been charged with an offence in New Zealand.
More than a third have been convicted of crimes in New Zealand - up from 21 percent at the end of 2016, and 25 percent in 2017.
Antony Miller had been living in Australia for 14 years when he was jailed on drug charges in 2013 - he was kicked out of his adopted home in 2016 and said it had been a huge struggle.
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"Mate, it's terrible. The feeling when you walk off the plane, not good. You feel free but you're not."
Miller said he arrived in Auckland and was given $700 and a week's accommodation on Queen Street - but that wasn't enough.
"When your week's up, what do you think's going to happen? Put a man in a cage and what do you think's going to happen to him? You're going to react, so that's probably why the crime has gone up, because these guys are scared and don't know where to live," he said.
Miller said he knew plenty of 501s who had committed crimes since they'd returned to New Zealand - but he had managed to stay out of trouble.
Figures released to RNZ under the Official Information Act show there have been 900 violence charges laid, 1300 dishonest charges, nearly 1000 traffic charges, 650 drugs charges and 63 sexual charges.
Jail sentences have been handed down to 77 people.
Support for returning 501 deportees is provided by not-for profit groups PARS and the Salvation Army.
Glen Buckner is the Salvation Army's National Operations Manager for Reintegration. He said he was surprised at how many 501s had reoffended in New Zealand, as he didn't believe any returned here with that intention.
"Some of them have been living quite successful lives over in Australia without getting into trouble," he said.
"I think it's just the pressures and they don't know the resources and the connections that they could be utilising, so some of them are making choices that are unsuitable for themselves and our community."
PARS has worked with more than 500 deportees since 2015 - the number of clients more than doubled last year, jumping from 140 to 295.
Police Minister Stuart Nash refused to be interviewed for this story, but said in a statement that the recidivism rate is comparable to, in some cases lower than, that of offenders released from New Zealand prisons.
Corrections Minister Kelvin Davis also refused to be interviewed, despite telling Checkpoint in 2016 when he was an opposition MP that a lack of support left many 501s vulnerable.
"They've got no job, no roof over their head, if they don't have the right type of social support then they may have to resort to crime to get by," he said.
"So these people are in a dire situation and if it backfires it's going to be New Zealanders who are going to be the victims of their crime."
More than 200 more 501 deportees are expected to arrive back in New Zealand before the end of the year.