An Indian man who was jailed for raping a 14-year-old girl will not be deported because life in his home country would be too hard.

The man appealed to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal that his deportation would be devastating, after being told he would be kicked out of New Zealand after completing his prison sentence.

In 2003 he arrived in New Zealand with his mother and siblings at the age of nine.

The tribunal's decision says that shortly after the family was granted residence, when the man was 14, he raped a girl in an area of bush behind their local temple.

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The man's mother and the girl's father agreed not to report the matter to police as long as the rapist left for India immediately and never returned.

After arriving back in his birth country the man lived with an uncle, the tribunal decision said. The man's name was not given by the tribunal.

But the house was crowded and he was soon kicked out, dependent on his mother to provide money for food and accommodation while he struggled with the heat and food poisoning.

Not being able to read or write Punjabi he could not find work and nine months later he came back to New Zealand.

The victim's family found out and reported the matter to police, the tribunal decision said.

In 2013 he was found guilty of rape and sentenced to three-and-a-half years' jail.

He was released on parole a little more than a year later, describing his experience in prison as "frightening".

After his release he continued a relationship he had started with a Fijian Indian woman in 2012, who had suffered a miscarriage only weeks after the man went to prison.

In his evidence the man said he had proposed to the woman, a New Zealand citizen, but if he was deported she would not follow him as she had never been to India.

Since his release he had enrolled in a building course and hoped to go into the property development business.

But if he was sent back to India his life would be "ruined" and even more difficult as he no longer had the support of his extended family in the country following his conviction.

In his decision tribunal member Peter Fuiava said the man was well settled in New Zealand and would be at a significant disadvantage if sent back.

His departure would also cause "significant emotional distress" to his fiancee.

"Notwithstanding the seriousness of the appellant's offending (inherently serious, but at the lower end of the spectrum and committed by a child too young to make decisions), the tribunal is satisfied that this is outweighed by his exceptional humanitarian circumstances and that it would be unjust or unduly harsh to deport the appellant from New Zealand."