Immigration NZ says more than 560 foreigners who work in the arts and entertainment industry have received a special exemption to enter New Zealand during the pandemic.
Between June 18, 2020 and December 8, 2021, 564 workers in the entertainment and arts sector have had requests for border exceptions approved. Immigration NZ told Newshub it was not possible to say how many international DJs have had approved requests for the other critical workers exemption as that would require going through each file.
While New Zealand’s border remains mostly shut to non-New Zealanders, employers can bring workers into the country as “other critical workers”, but they are still “expected to genuinely seek to fill job vacancies with New Zealanders”.
One category is for short-term workers, meaning those needing to be in New Zealand for less than six months.
According to the Immigration NZ website, a short-term worker is considered an “other critical worker” if they have “unique experience and technical or specialist skills not readily obtainable in New Zealand” or they are undertaking a “time-critical” role for a major Government project, an approved government-to-government agreement or “work with significant wider benefit to the national or regional economy”.
It says skills are considered “not readily obtainable if there are no workers in New Zealand who can do the role, or there is a limited pool of available workers who can do the role and they are not available to the employer”.
When confirming on Instagram that he was the positive Omicron case, Dimension said he was “devastated” to test positive and was “extremely sorry” about what had happened.Â
The incident led Dimension to receive abuse on social media, while criticism was also levelled at the MIQ system for allowing entertainers into the country at the same time families remain overseas unable to get into New Zealand through the lottery system.
“Kiwis will rightly be shocked that a DJ was able to enter New Zealand three times in one year to play a variety of music festivals while specialist ICU nurses and Kiwis stranded abroad have found it nearly impossible to enter New Zealand,” National’s Chris Bishop said.
Dimension had earlier posted photos to social media on Christmas Day showing him on a Waiheke Beach but has since deleted them. He later said the Waiheke photos were at a private address approved by the ministry.
Another British DJ, Friction, and Kiwi drum and base duo Lee Mvtthews also had to withdraw from Rhythm and Alps due to being close contacts. Friction posted on Instagram he had received a negative test result but was isolating as a precaution.
