You will have no doubt have caught up on the news by now that Behrouz Boochani has been granted refugee status in New Zealand.

Behrouz Boochani is the Kurdish Iranian writer who was detained on Manus Island for six years, before coming here on a one month visa November last year.

Now this is not actually about Boochani himself. He’s obviously a smart guy. That’s evident from the fact that he wrote a 374 page book while he was in detention, on his phone, and which he smuggled out through hundreds of text messages to his editors in Australia. That’s a pretty remarkable thing to do.

But, there’s an uncomfortable feeling about the way Boochani was brought into New Zealand. It raises questions about whether he’s been given celebrity treatment because he’s a celebrated author or because he has friends in Parliament. You might remember the Greens’ Golriz Ghahraman met him at the airport in Christchurch on his arrival.

The questions around how he got here go right back to the first visa given to him. It was a one month visa, supported by Amnesty International, so he could attend a book festival.

Generally, for short visit visas, immigration officials demand proof that you are going to leave again. You’d think that risk would be quite high with a guy known to be seeking asylum. So, why was he given that visa?

Then, Immigration should’ve got worried when, the day after arriving, he gave interviews telling us he’s not going back to Port Moresby.

"I am not going to go back to Port Moresby because for the six years I was there, they forced me to stay there. They kept me there by force, which is why I’m not going to go back.”

And then, fast forward eight months, why has he been given refugee status to stay?  He’s already been given permission to settle in the US.

This is not to make him feel unwelcome, but it is to question whether we’ve just witnessed favouritism in the immigration system.