Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, unhappy about the decision to deport the boy, only found out about it on Monday afternoon.
“Within the group of 501s that we had returned recently, there was what we considered a minor in that group,” she said.
“I have a specific objection to the fact that we have people being deported from Australia who we consider to be Australians.”
A source who was on the flight back to New Zealand noticed the boy on the plane.
He told Newshub that he thought the boy was a guard’s son, as they wouldn’t deport a child.
He said he spoke to him briefly when they were about to land and that he was freaking out.
At this stage, little is known about the boy or where he’s staying, but all deportees have been subject to managed isolation in Auckland.