3 May 2005

NZ Border Security "In Tatters" Other Saddam Iraqis Enter Country

New Zealand’s border security is described as being in tatters after Rt Hon Winston Peters revealed today that another more senior Iraqi and his wife have been allowed into New Zealand and have not been picked up by immigration officials.

This follows the Minister of Immigration announcing yesterday that a former Iraqi diplomat’s visitor’s permit had been revoked and he and his wife would have to leave New Zealand.

Mr Peters said today that he had warned the government last week that an Iraqi “wolf” was in New Zealand but yesterday the minister produced a “rabbit”.

“We warned that a former cabinet minister Amer Mahdi Alkhashali (aka Amer Mahdi Saleh Khashaly) was here. He was the Minister for Agriculture and Agrarian Reform and a former delegate to the FAO and UNESCO (Baghdad).

“This person came here on a UN passport a little over a month ago because he had heard of the Ahmed Zaoui case. He approached Zaoui’s lawyers for assistance to gain refugee status but they have suddenly dropped him like a hot scone.

“This is because his case would interfere with their carefully orchestrated PR campaign for Zaoui whose taxpayer funded costs have now passed $2 million.

“When you have been told that it is a minister and you produce a diplomat then clearly the level of ministerial incompetence knows no bounds.

“Moreover, when is Helen Clark going to show some leadership over this issue? Yesterday Mr Swain said there was nobody in the country with the same sort of profile.(Yeah right!)

“The government has no idea who is coming into the country and this case proves it,” said Mr Peters.

ENDS

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