National doubts thoroughness of checks on refugees

National says it doubts the thoroughness of checks on refugees being accepted by New Zealand.

Tomorrow, 136 refugees refused entry to Australia and detained in Papua New Guinea and Nauru will arrive in New Zealand.

All had been approved by the Australian Immigration Department or the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as being genuine refugees and will initially be detained at the Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre in Auckland.

Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel said they were part of New Zealand's quota of 750 refugees a year.

National MP Murray McCully said he believed many of those being accepted now had had their first refugee application rejected. He doubted how rigorous the checks were on a second attempt.

Many refugees from Afghanistan were allowed to reapply after the collapse of the Taleban regime. Some of these people that are coming in on Thursday clearly were rejects the first time the UNHCR did the assessment.

"The minister still needs to come clean about that review process and what rules have been bent by the Australians to make them qualify now," Mr McCully said.

Ms Dalziel said the assessments had been thorough.

- NZPA

Feature: Immigration