A Cook Islands MP Tamaiva Tuavera wants New Zealand to stop sending young offenders, who are New Zealanders of Cook Island descent, back to the islands.
Tamaiva Tuavera Photo: RNZI/Florence Syme-Buchanan
Mr Tuavera said sending young people in trouble with the law in New Zealand to the Cook Islands in the hope they will be rehabilitated doesn't work.
He said extended families in the Cook Islands could not look after them without additional support.
He said these youths kept getting into trouble, introduce a more serious level of offending to the Cooks, burden the already stretched police and justice resources and place unfair pressure on families in the Cook Islands.
