A Nigerian woman who fabricated refugee claims and was illegally smuggled into the country with children who may not be her own has been given residency.
The woman and three children arrived on false Zimbabwean passports 10 years ago. She gave birth to another child eight months later.
In its judgement, the Immigration and Protection Tribunal said the woman's personal history in two asylum claims and appeals is inherently implausible and rife with contradictions.
She claimed she gave birth to two of her children, twins, in Togo, but Immigration New Zealand says it has no evidence they are hers, and not part of an arrangement with their parents to bring them here.
But the tribunal ruled she is the only continuous parental figure the children have and their humanitarian circumstances outweigh her "appalling" immigration history.
