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Samoan Methodist minister kicked out of NZ, despite support

A beloved Auckland-based minister has lost his battle to remain in New Zealand, despite the Samoan church claiming he's the only man fit for his job.

Iosia Pati, 59, and his wife Ruta, 57, have run a Samoan methodist church in south Auckland since 2011; their lawyer said that without them, the church would be "completely destabilised".

Minister Pati's visa ran out in in 2014 and Immigration New Zealand had declined his bids to stay in the country under religious worker or essential skills categories. 

The head of the Pati's church in Samoa had supported the minister's pleas to remain, claiming there was no one else in New Zealand qualified to take his place at the the 70-family parish.

"If [the Patis] are unable to remain in New Zealand, the parish will therefore not have a church minister and this will have a devastating and destabilising effect on a significant number of the parish", court notes reported the church having said.

However, the church failed to provide Immigration New Zealand with evidence of the dearth of ordained ministers

Pati's final bid to stay argued that the damage his congregation would face without him and his wife amounted to "exceptional humanitarian circumstances".

Nevertheless the Immigration and Protection Tribunal, in charge of the family's fate, ruled that the Patis would be deported.

Its ruling acknowledged "there was no doubt from the many letters written by members of the congregation" that the couple had earned "respect and affection" within their community.

It also noted Pati's efforts, from improving the church's financial management, to hands-on carpentry and the support of exercise programmes, had lead to the church's currently flourishing state.

Read more at Stuff New Zealand