Watchdog slams fake refugees

By EUGENE BINGHAM

Fraudulent and groundless asylum claims have swamped immigration authorities and threaten to grind the refugee processing system to a halt, a key Government agency has warned.

The Refugee Status Appeals Authority says genuine refugees and the system itself have become the victims of widespread abuse.

"The authority's experience has been that endemic abuse of its procedures has the potential of consuming all of the authority's slender resources, thereby bringing the entire system to its knees," the authority chairman, Rodger Haines, QC, has said in a decision.

"When abuse of this magnitude occurs the genuine refugee claimant is not the only victim. The refugee determination system itself is imperilled."

Mr Haines' hard-hitting comments are made in a ruling on legal issues raised by a Vietnamese man claiming refugee status.

In considering the issues, Mr Haines said the authority had been forced to change its approach to dealing with claims because of rising levels of abusive claims and the refusal of a significant number of claimants to co-operate with the authority's inquiries.

Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel said yesterday that she was angry about the level of abuse and wanted to make changes to the law to deal with people who made repeated groundless applications.

Claims for asylum are initially dealt with by the Immigration Service's refugee status branch. People whose applications are declined can have their case reviewed by the authority, an independent body established in 1991.

Since then, it has dealt with more than 4500 applications. Over the 11 years, the authority has approved an average of 17 per cent of the claims before it.

But since 1996, the approval rate has averaged only about 10 per cent. In this financial year, it has approved only 3 per cent.

"It is simply not possible to prevent the unscrupulous from lodging abusive claims," said Mr Haines. "All a system can do is to ensure that such claims are fast-tracked in order to remove incentives created by delay.

"The claims represent a very substantial drain on resources."

Budget and practical difficulties mean authorities are unable to establish the truth of asylum-seekers' claims and instead rely upon their credibility.

Many asylum-seekers pursued their cases in an "opportunistic if not legalistic manner, cards held close to the chest, to be produced reluctantly and then only if there is no other palatable alternative.

"In the actual hearings, there is widespread deceit and fraud, as indicated by the large number of cases which fail on credibility grounds."

The authority said one of the worst cases of abuse had been carried out by 232 Thais who lodged almost identical appeals in the last year. When they were rejected, they re-lodged claims to delay their removal. Some had been re-lodged four times.

Ms Dalziel wanted to talk to the UNHCR about law changes to deal with repeated groundless appeals.

The authority had a large workload because the Immigration Service had reduced a backlog of 3000 applications before the refugee status branch. The backlog had been reduced to 570 but that meant more work for the appeal authority.

"But there is a significant proportion who would be a manifestly unfounded claim and so they are just trying the system on.

"I guess I get very angry about that because [the system] is designed to protect those who are genuinely in fear of persecution - I want the system to be able to respond to their needs," Lianne Dalziel said.

NZ First leader Winston Peters, who has made a campaign issue of immigration, said Mr Haines' comments underscored what he had been talking about.

"This is an absolute sham going on. This country is known because its agents are abroad advertising the simplicity and softness of the system. It is inviting abuse."

Feature: Immigration