New Zealand said on April 7 that it was making immediate changes to its employment visa program after a near-record migration last year which it said was “unsustainable”.

The changes include measures such as introducing English language requirement for low skilled jobs and setting a minimum skills and work experience threshold for most employer work visas. The maximum continuous stay for most low skilled roles will also be reduced to three years from five years.

“The Government is focused on attracting and retaining the highly skilled migrants such as secondary teachers, where there is a skill shortage,” Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said in a statement.

“At the same time we need to ensure that New Zealanders are put to the front of the line for jobs where there are no skills shortages,” she said.

Last year, a near record 173,000 people migrated to New Zealand, the statement said.

New Zealand, which has a population of about 5.1 million, has seen a rapid growth in its migrant numbers since the end of the pandemic, raising concerns last year that it was fanning inflation.

Neighbouring Australia, which has also seen a big jump in migrants, has said it would halve its migrant intake over the next two years.

A man “miraculously” survived a fall of 600 meters (approximately 2,000 feet) with only minor injuries after tumbling down the side of a mountain in New Zealand. According to the BBC, the incident took place on Mount Taranaki, on the west coast of New Zealand’s North Island, on Saturday. Police said that the climber, whose identity hasn’t been revealed, was saved by warmer-than-usual weather which softened the ice and helped to break the man’s fall. 

The distance of the man’s fall is believed to be equivalent to some of the world’s tallest buildings and roughly double the height of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The police said the climber is “exceptionally lucky to be alive,” as per the BBC. 

“These are challenging areas and when things go wrong there are often serious consequences. Climbing on Mount Taranaki requires experience, knowledge and properly fitted and correct equipment. Failing to be properly equipped could result in a very different ending to Saturday’s story,” the cops added. 

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According to the police, the climber was part of a group scaling Mount Taranaki and he fell at around midday on Saturday. “Having watched their fellow climber slide down the mountain and out of view, another member of the group climbed down to try and locate them,” said the police.

A member of the Taranaki Alpine Rescue also happened to be in the area at the time and helped locate the fallen man. The climber was found with minor injuries, with his ice axe and crampons mission, according to SkyNews. This part of the mountain is particularly dangerous, police said.

The BBC reported that Mount Taranaki has a reputation as one of the deadliest mountains in New Zealand. A few years back, two climbers had also fallen to their deaths from the same spot from which the man plunged at the weekend.