Indian students who were deported from New Zealand say their lives are ruined, and Labour MPs who promised to help have abandoned them.

The lawyer for a group of Indian students deported from New Zealand over fake visas has slammed Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for her silence after she promised to help them should Labour win the 2017 election.

In February 2017, 150 Indian students were issued deportation notices after an Indian immigration agency used fraudulent supporting documents in their visas, unbeknownst to the students.

Immigration New Zealand said the students were responsible for the fake documents and issued deportation notices due to adverse character. The Ombudsman upheld the decision in 2018.

JASON DORDAY/STUFF Supporters at a protest in January 2018 called on the Government to allow a group of Indian students facing deportation to stay in the country.

Ardern and then-Labour leader Andrew Little posed for photos with the students during a visit to the Auckland Unitarian Church, where the students were staying.

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Ardern slammed the National-led government for its decision and promised to help the students should Labour gain power, Alastair McClymont, a specialist immigration lawyer for a group of the students, said.

McClymont told Radio New Zealand some of the students had returned to India, but some had remained in New Zealand and kept a low profile.

He said a number of Labour and Green MPs visited the group seeking refuge at the church, and agreed that if the students had been done wrong by Indian immigration agencies, they should be allowed to stay.

"Those were the promises made by a large number of MPs," he told RNZ.

DOMINICO ZAPATA/STUFF Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been slammed by an immigration lawyer for breaking her promise to help a group of deported Indian students.

Despite winning the election and being sworn in as Prime Minister, McClymont said Ardern then went silent on her promise.

The students struggled to adjust to life back in India and failed to find employment due to background checks flagging them as international fraudsters.

One student revealed to Stuff they were still living with their parents two months after returning to India, which they were "really ashamed of.

Lawrence Smith Lawyer Alastair McClymont said the associate minister of immigration could accept the students' returning applications in a number of minutes if he wanted to.

"It's almost impossible for us to find a job here with the deportee mark on us."

McClymont said the group of students addressed by Ardern in the church "knew absolutely nothing" of the falsified documents.

He said the lack of support for the students was inconsistent with Ardern's stated values of compassion and empathy.

SUPPLIED Indian students deported from New Zealand are struggling to adjust to life back home.

The students' returning applications were before Associate Minister of Immigration, Kris Faafoi, who McClymont said could make a decision within a couple of minutes, RNZ reported.

"There's no need for him to wait for anything. The associate minister can make a decision immediately."

McClymont said the last communication he had with the associate minister was to say the applications had been received, but otherwise "silence".

He was not "overly" confident the applications would be approved, as the promises made to the students by Labour prior to the election had been broken, RNZ reported.

"This is the opportunity for the government to actually stand up and make a statement that yes, it's a government of compassion and empathy for all people, including migrants, and not just New Zealanders."

RNZ reported that spokespeople for Faafoi and Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway said any comment given before a decision was made could jeopardise the process.

Ardern's office did not respond.