Former rugby league player Richie Barnett is joining forces with PARS to help mentor Kiwi criminals who are deported from Australia. (Photo: Salome Nourse)
02 September 2018
Jacques Steenkamp – Stuff
Former rugby league star Richie Barnett is about to take on his next big challenge – deportees from Australia. The 47-year-old has teamed up with reintegration agency People at Risk Solutions (PARS) and will act as a mentor to the next wave of deportees, 500 of which PARS has already supported since 2015.
Barnett says people need a purpose in life and is really keen on helping some of the deportees find that. “They’ve served their time, yet they’re getting (deported) back to a country which is foreign to them,” says Barnett.
More than 1,300 Kiwis who served out their sentences in Australian prisons have been deported back to New Zealand since 2014. This is the focus of a new documentary entitled Section 501 that will air on Maori Television on Monday at 8.30pm.
[Read the full Stuff article].
Related
Assistance for deportees in New Zealand
