KEY POINTS:
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters says the woman charged with hijacking a plane should never have been allowed into New Zealand as a refugee.
Asha Ali Abdille appeared in Christchurch District Court yesterday on a number of wounding charges, and became the first person in New Zealand to
be charged with attempting to take control of an aircraft.
Peters raised questions about Abdille in 1994, then under Parliamentary privilege 10 years later, when he said she had a "police record a mile long" with convictions that would "make Al Capone proud".
In March 2005, Peters asked former Immigration Minister Paul Swain in Parliament if he was "confident that Asha Ali Abdille, the refugee sickness beneficiary whom he ordered an inquiry into last year, and who has a string of criminal convictions, is not a threat to the New Zealand community; if so, why?"
Swain replied: "Yes, I did order an inquiry into that. There were two issues: firstly, the seriousness of the alleged crimes, which is still being investigated, and, secondly, whether she was a fit and proper person to bring in other family members.
"That whole policy issue is one that I have currently under review."
A spokeswoman for current Immigration Minister Clayton Cosgrove said the Department of Labour would collect every file on Abdille, including the Swain-ordered investigation, to be reviewed next week.
Until then, she said, Cosgrove would be unable to comment and sub judice laws may gag him because Abdille was before the courts.
Peters yesterday told the Herald on Sunday he had handed information about Abdille "on a platter" to officials at the Immigration Department, but nothing happened. "This is a matter of national security. We now have a reputation of having hijackings on planes. Somebody has to be held accountable for that."
Peters told the Herald On Sunday he had gathered information on Abdille from several sources, including police records.
"She had a list as long as your arm. I wanted to know what she was doing here. The law needs to be changed to get rid of people like that.
"We have homegrown people with long records. Why do we need to import them?"
New Zealand was seen as a "soft touch" by people trying to immigrate, said Peters.
"More than that... it's seen as plain stupid. It's a massive drain on the ratepayers of New Zealand.
"New Zealanders need to understand, they are just buying themselves serious problems if they don't act. I want to see the same rules that are applied by nearly every other country."
Peters said it was unfortunate that the actions of some refugees caused others to be "tarred with the same brush".
"That's a human reaction and I blame the authorities."