Government Must Act Quickly On 1800 False Refugees

new-zealand-first-party

Wed Mar 06 2002 13:00:00 GMT+1300 (New Zealand Daylight Time)

Government Must Act Quickly On 1800 False Refugees

Wednesday, 6 March 2002, 9:49 am
Press Release: New Zealand First Party

Government Must Act Quickly And Decisively On 1800 False Refugees--Peters

New Zealand First Leader, Rt Hon Winston Peters is calling for immediate action by the Immigration Department over the 1800 so-called asylum seekers who have been declined as genuine cases and the 14,000 illegal over-stayers in New Zealand, who have been able to gain access to core government services.

“These people should not even be in the country, let alone be able to stretch government services even further when New Zealanders themselves who pay taxes are not able to access those services. It seems that they queue-jumped to get into this country and now they are queue-jumping while they are here,” said Mr Peters.

“The Government’s immigration policy is in a mess and these figures prove it. That the population the size of Greymouth or Central Otago can enter this country and be able to illegally stay is outrageous, and shows how out of control this problem is.

“We are not talking about genuine refugees or those with genuine cases—we are talking about people who managed to get into this country illegally, often under false pretenses, and are living here illegally. We have on our hands 14,000 people who simply go one breaking our law with impunity and will have to resort to more and more illegal means to stay alive—this problem is a potentially very dangerous one.

“The argument that these people must be protected by our privacy laws is a red-herring. These people are here illegally and they should not be treated the same under the law as our own citizens.

“The parallel can be made with the recent referenda in California when Californians voted to stop illegal immigrants from accessing government services. In that case it was seen that these immigrants were placing an immense strain on public services. New Zealand must now take equally tough measures,” concluded Mr Peters.

ENDS

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