27 Mar 2016

Injured Tongan man to stay in NZ for rehabilitation

9:24 pm on 27 March 2016

A Tongan man who was badly hurt after being hit by a car, has been allowed to stay in New Zealand for another year to continue rehabilitation.

The man arrived as a visitor in 2009 but had been living here illegally, working in orchards.

He has two New Zealand-born children.

The Immigration and Protection Tribunal said he was hit by a car in 2014, one day after he was granted a one-year work visa.

He suffered a severe head injury and spent six months in hospital and rehabilitation.

The tribunal said his marriage had broken down soon after he returned home.

It has granted him a 12-month work visa, saying deportation would deprive him of the chance of a full recovery.