Refugee hits back at 'laughable' claims

Najm Al-Ali and his family had their picture taken with the Prime Minister when she visited Glenfield.

A Kuwaiti father of 14 has denied accusations by Winston Peters that he cheated his family's way into New Zealand and then abused the welfare system.

At his Northcote home yesterday, refugee Najm Al-Ali dished out a mountain of papers, frustrated and upset at the New Zealand First leader's allegations.

Mr Peters this month accused Mr Al-Ali of falsely claiming refugee status then fraudulently bringing several family members to New Zealand.

He said the family were from Iraq and had falsely claimed they were stateless.

It followed other claims made by Mr Peters of "undesirable" Iraqis who had slipped though the country's border controls.

Mr Al-Ali signed a statement allowing the Herald to ask anything of the Immigration Service about his case.

Last night, Mr Peters said the inquiries would fail as all the service had were fabrications.

"The story from this family is not true and I am going to prove it."

Mr Al-Ali produced birth certificates showing that he and most of his children were from Kuwait, as well as certification that his parents were also born there.

He said through daughter Fatima that it was misleading to imply they were an Iraqi family, as had been reported.

In 1991, Mr Al-Ali, his wife and their-then nine children were shunted into Iraq after its occupation of Kuwait and were left stateless like 40,000 others.

They had five more children while in Iraq and three of his older daughters became engaged to Iraqis during their nine-year stay there.

Mr Al-Ali said that in 2000 he arrived alone in Auckland, travelling on a false Saudi Arabian passport which he cut up on the plane before landing. His family followed nine months later.

The Iraqi fiances of his daughters later gained entry and were now married with New Zealand-born babies.

Fatima, 22, said her father was deeply upset, particularly at claims by Mr Peters that he had worked under the table here and had charged three family members $30,000 each to get into the country.

Mr Peters had said some of the 14 children were actually grandchildren.

Fatima said she had 13 brothers and sisters, aged from 6 to 30, and it was not unusual for Middle Eastern people to have large families.

"When we saw that we were so surprised ... it is laughable. And if my father had $90,000 we would not be living in this small house. He would have started a business and we would be working and not have had to borrow money."

Mr Peters also accused Mr Al-Ali of selling cars on the side.

"This really is not true ... It's all wrong and really hard for us," said Fatima.

The family lived in two state houses in a Northcote street.

The older married sisters had moved out to other homes with their husbands, who had part-time work, and their babies.

Mr Al-Ali showed the Herald a photo of them taken with Prime Minister Helen Clark on a visit to Glenfield, framed and hung prominently in the lounge.