Decision day for jailed pair

By GREGG WYCHERLEY and CATHERINE MASTERS

Two young men from the second group of Tampa boat people could be moved from Mt Eden Remand Prison to the Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre today.

The two youths, aged 16 and 17, have been held at the jail for security reasons for the past five days after the Immigration Service interviewed them on arrival from Nauru.

Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel said the service had been inquiring into the case and a decision on the pair's future was expected early today.

She said she had forwarded their lawyer's submission to the Immigration Service yesterday afternoon and hoped the situation could be resolved without her intervention.

The decision would be that they remain in Mt Eden or that they join the rest of the asylum seekers at Mangere, she said.

The initial security concerns arose as a result of an interview at the airport, but the pair had since undergone more questioning.

Ms Dalziel said the 10 Iranians and Iraqis involved in a brawl at their Whangaparaoa camp had apologised and promised to behave themselves.

"They are very apologetic, not only to each other but to the people of New Zealand, for having allowed their tensions to rise to this extent."

She said one of the families involved had been moved to the Mangere refugee centre to avoid more conflict but she was not aware of any increase in security at the camp. "We don't know what caused the problems to arise ... Just because people have come from a conflict background doesn't mean they've brought the conflict with them."

Ms Dalziel said a conviction for the 10 involved would not affect their refugee status. She rejected a call by New Zealand First leader Winston Peters for them to be deported.

Mr Peters alleged they had not been screened properly and should be "sent packing forthwith".

Refugee workers denounced Mr Peters' comments as "redneck" and ignorant.

Hans ten Feld, the Auckland-based New Zealand representative for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said deporting refugees would be sending them back to "potentially certain death".

Politicians should not try to score points on the backs of refugees who had suffered enough, said Mr ten Feld. The refugees would go through the court system like any other New Zealanders.

Those at Whangaparaoa had been thoroughly screened by the UNHCR and by New Zealand immigration staff, he said.

"It's regrettable that asylum seekers and refugees are being painted in a negative light, because they are victims and they should be received with sympathy and with assistance."

Peter Cotton, director of the Refugee and Migrant Service, which resettles refugees, said a spat between refugees did not make them terrorists, but the country needed to look more carefully at the ability of some groups to be settled here.

Ms Dalziel said her decision against legal advice to allow Tampa boat people to talk to the media was to counter an Opposition scaremongering campaign.

A senior Immigration Service official said last week that it could prejudice the Afghans' claim for refugee status, but Ms Dalziel allowed a television camera into the Mangere centre.

She said print media had repeatedly ignored her requests to respect the privacy of refugees by running photographs and she decided to let one television crew in so the refugees could put their side of the story.

"They are left in a position where they can't respond to what have been absolutely outrageous statements from Opposition members," she said.

"I intervened so that their story could be told."