The government is to spend an extra $13.3 million over four years on protecting New Zealand's borders, Immigration Minister Paul Swain said today.

Mr Swain said the funding, allocated in Budget 2005, beefs up the New Zealand Immigration Service's fraud detection capability as well as strengthening its overstayer detection and removal, and border and investigation teams.

"Border security is a problem faced by most countries because some people will try anything to defraud immigration authorities. This initiative shows the government is serious about protecting our borders. It will help protect New Zealand’s access to classified information from peer countries and makes sure New Zealanders' wages and conditions are not undercut by illegal workers."

Mr Swain said the increased funding builds on the nearly $20 million extra the government has already spent on border security since 2003.

"For example, the government introduced Advanced Passenger Screening in 2003 and this has already stopped 650 people from entering New Zealand. This screening means that our border effectively starts when people board planes to come to New Zealand. The new funding adds to this capability," Mr Swain said.

The new funding announced today will be used for:

• Employing 15 extra border and investigation officers at Auckland, Christchurch and Queenstown airports and five extra staff in overstayer detection and removal teams
• Strengthening the detection of false and tampered passports/travel documents
• Enhancing Advanced Passenger Screening
• Improving risk profiling to stop people who pose a threat from entering New Zealand
• Increasing data sharing with Australian and American immigration services and increasing offshore intelligence systems.

Mr Swain said the government took border security seriously and the extra funding demonstrated this.