The scaling back of the MIQ system means a long-awaited farewell to the often controversial voucher allocation system
It’s been a tough couple of years for people trying to get into New Zealand.
Border regulations that came in suddenly in early 2020 meant arrivals needed to spend two weeks in a government-controlled MIQ facility before being set free to roam the motu.
While the system allowed New Zealand to keep tight controls of its borders, it also proved difficult to scale up and down according to demand.
This left Kiwis trying to return and migrants trying to move here in the difficult position of refreshing a web page ad nauseam for weeks, or being given a number in a queue tens of thousands of people long.
But now with the border opening in stages from now until October at the latest, the voucher allocation system that previously allowed people to book a space in MIQ is on the chopping block.
Visitors are being asked to self-test instead of quarantining in hotels, meaning MIQ will only be used by a small amount of arrivals. These could include maritime and international air crew.
Seeing as demand will from here on out be a fraction of what it was over the past two years, gone are the days of logging in to try and get lucky and get a space, or lining up virtually to take your number while crossing fingers that it’s in the first few hundred.
Head of MIQ Chris Bunny said with fewer people needing MIQ, the voucher system is no longer needed.
“This is a natural next step in the scaling back of our operations,” he said.
Alongside the voucher system goes the need for emergency allocations and time-sensitive travel allocations, with MIQ stopping accepting these last Friday.
As of this week, 22 of the 32 remaining MIQ facilities are in the 90-day process of decommissioning, which includes assessing whether the hotels will need remediation or refurbishment before reentering the market.
The remaining 10 facilities currently house special use groups, including Afghanistan arrivals, refugees, mariners and air crews.
These 10 are expected to be brought down to four by the end of June, with three left in Auckland and one in Christchurch.
The MIQ system housed more than 230,000 travellers over the course of nearly two years. Bunny said the system gave New Zealanders time to get vaccinated so the country could face Covid-19 confidently, while also recognising the booking system sometimes made people’s lives tough.
“It became a hard - at times frustrating - process for people wanting to return to New Zealand, caught between MIQ’s finite capacity and the measures to prevent Covid-19 from entering an unprotected community,” he said. “It did take a toll on people’s lives - it wasn’t always popular. MIQ meant not everyone could come home when they wanted to. But it also meant that Covid could not come in when it wanted to, either.”
Each month, the number of categories of people who can enter the country without a stay in MIQ increases, with unvaccinated New Zealand citizens recently added to the list.
In its place is a high-trust model where travellers are expected to take two rapid antigen tests on day one and day six. Travellers are required to report the results of the tests, whether they are positive or negative.
With these big changes to the MIQ system, Bunny said the priority would be supporting staff, with an eye to retaining skilled labour.
“We know this is an unsettling time for our workers and will do everything possible to ensure they are well looked after and treated fairly,” he said. “We are working to identify opportunities for them and providing training resources - we want to make the transition as smooth as possible, and retain talent, as our hardworking staff have proven themselves to be incredible during these stressful times and deserve reassurance that they will be looked after.”
