Navjot Singh, an 18-year-old who has spent his entire life in New Zealand, is now at risk of being deported to India a country he has never visited after his application for residency was turned down by the government.

Singh was born in Auckland in 2007 to Indian parents who were unlawfully residing in the country at the time. Due to a legislative change that came into effect in 2006, which ended automatic birthright citizenship, Singh is not recognised as a New Zealand citizen. Under the law, children born after January 1, 2006, must have at least one parent who is either a citizen or a permanent resident to obtain citizenship.

Navjot’s father was deported when he was just five days old, and his mother lost her immigration status when he was five. Without legal documents, Singh has never attended school and has lived his entire life in the shadows of New Zealand society.

“I asked my mum why I wasn’t at school, and then she had to tell me,” Singh recalled. “Ever since, I’ve been living in fear. I couldn’t even be honest with my friends.”

Minister Rejects Residency Plea

Singh’s plea for residency through a ministerial intervention was recently rejected by Associate Immigration Minister Chris Penk, leaving him with no viable pathway to remain in the country legally. A spokesperson for Immigration Minister Erica Stanford confirmed to Radio New Zealand (RNZ) that although no current legislative work is addressing cases like Singh’s, individual situations can still be reviewed through ministerial discretion or the Immigration Protection Tribunal.

Now facing the prospect of being sent to India, Singh expressed deep anxiety about relocating to a country where he has no family, support system, or familiarity with the language. “I don’t think I’ll survive in India,” he said. “I don’t speak Hindi. I’ve heard that people with higher qualifications can’t find jobs there, so what would I do?”

Immigration lawyer Alastair McClymont, who is representing Singh, criticised the government’s stance as lacking compassion. “It makes no sense to deport children who have grown up here to a foreign country,” he told RNZ. He also called on the government to follow the example of countries like Australia and the UK, where children living in the country for 10 years can be granted citizenship.

Community support has rallied behind Singh, with many advocating for a reconsideration of his case. Daljit Singh, president of the Supreme Sikh Society, voiced disbelief upon learning that Navjot had never been enrolled in school. “When somebody told me he was 15 years old and had never been to school, that’s something I found very difficult to digest,” he said. “He was born in New Zealand and is part of our community. What harm will children like Navjot bring to New Zealand? We shouldn’t punish these children because it wasn’t their fault.”

Green Party immigration spokesperson Ricardo Menéndez March echoed similar concerns, stating that deporting children to unfamiliar countries only increases vulnerability and hardship. “Erica Stanford has turned her back on some of the migrants most likely to face exploitation and negative impacts due to our immigration settings,” he said, adding that current policies treat migrants as “expendable.”

Singh also reflected on the hardships faced by his mother while raising him without any legal protection. “Raising a child as a single mother is really tough—imagine doing that without legal status,” he said. “We only survived with the help of our friends and the community.”

Labour Party immigration spokesperson Phil Twyford urged the government to re-evaluate the broader issue of children born to overstayers. “We need a better way,” he said, calling for a humane and practical solution to cases like Navjot’s.

For now, Singh remains in limbo stateless in the country he considers home, with nowhere else to turn.