Iraqi opens door to 13 more, says Peters

Winston Peters

Winston Peters claims the case of an entire Iraqi family who "cheated" their way into New Zealand shows a lack of safeguards in the country's immigration processes.

The New Zealand First leader used parliamentary privilege yesterday to allege Iraqi refugee Najim al-Ali falsely claimed refugee status, then fraudulently brought several family members to New Zealand.

Mr al-Ali is the latest in a string of Iraqis named by Mr Peters in an attempt to highlight problems with the country's border controls. But unlike the three other Iraqis he has named - and a fourth found as a result of his allegations - Mr al-Ali has no known links to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's regime.

The Iraqi is understood to have come to New Zealand in 2000 and to be living in Auckland. Mr Peters said the man and his wife Hessa had falsely claimed they were stateless, as part of their refugee claim.

But they had entered Jordan on Iraqi passports before coming to New Zealand.

Mr Peters said once here, Mr al-Ali brought in 13 "other family members", fraudulently claiming that some of their grandchildren were their children.

One set of claimed twins were actually a daughter and a granddaughter, he said.

Those family members then brought their spouses to New Zealand.

They then "reformed into the family structures they once lived in when they were in Iraq, now that they have cheated the New Zealand immigration system".

Mr Peters said Mr al-Ali had charged three of those whom he helped $30,000 each to get them here.

Several of Mr al-Ali's family members were granted benefits on arrival and two state houses to live in. Mr al-Ali also received a benefit despite working at a meat shop for under-the-table cash, and selling cars on the side, Mr Peters said.

He said the case showed the need for tighter controls on immigrants.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said the immigration service was already investigating Mr al-Ali. But she said even if allegations against him were proved it did not necessarily show major problems in the immigration system. "There is not country in the world that does not deal with cheats and liars when it comes to immigration."

Helen Clark said Mr Peters' rhetoric belied his own record on immigration while he was a member of the previous National-NZ First coalition.

The number of spontaneous asylum seekers had dropped to 714 in 2003-2004 - just 27 per cent of the 2627 in 1997-1998 when Mr Peters was deputy prime minister, she said.

However, the number accepted as genuine refugees was about the same in both years.

Mr Peters has named Amer Mahdi Al-Khshali, a former Iraqi government minister, Isaac Meti Yousef Jago, whom he claims was a member of Saddam's elite palace guard, and a former mayor in Iraq, Fakhri Sabri Mohammed - who says he was fleeing Saddam's regime.

Another Iraqi, former ambassador Zukhair Mohammad Al-Omar, was discovered by authorities while they were looking for Mr Al-Khshali.

- NZPA