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The Iwi Leaders pandemic response group wants the Government to limit the number of people returning to Aotearoa to 1500 a week.
Chair Mike Smith says the group first made the recommendation earlier this month when the first cases of the more contagious UK and South African strains of coronavirus started turning up in at the border.
He says the fact the recommendation was ignored has contributed to the current breaches into the community of people who were infected while in managed isolation.
He wants the government to emulate Queensland, which has imposed tight limits on entry since the start of the pandemic.
"If we cap the amount of people coming through to a manageable number we are able to control those, to maintain them and support them and not put our populations at risk," Mr Smith says.
The iwi response group also wants new arrivals to undergo LAMP or Antigen testing, which can screen out most active cases at the airport, and also to ban people coming from hotspots for the new more contagious strains.
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