For Immediate Release June 28 2012

National government putting NZ good name at risk says expert

Australia is coping with the “mass arrival” of over 1000 Kiwis from New Zealand each week who are not refugees fleeing danger but seeking mere economic betterment, yet there has been no need to put them in detention camps says an international authority on refugees.

Professor Derrick Silove of the University of New South Wales says he is very surprised the National government is trying to push through the Mass Arrivals Amendment Bill when the asylum issue has been very divisive in Australia.

Professor Silove adds it is a serious mistake to politicise it for no good reason especially when, up until now, New Zealand had an excellent international reputation for its humanitarian refugee programmes.

“What you did with accepting the survivors of the Tampa was moving and historic and made New Zealand stand tall on the world stage,” Professor Silove says.

He believes politicians who are proponents of placing desperate boat people in detention camps are uninformed and don’t understand the implications of their actions or the costs to the people affected or on the taxpayer.

“Clearly it is 60% or more expensive to put asylum seekers in detention camps rather than placing them in the community while their asylum claims are processed, which is international best practice in a number of countries such as Belgium, Hong Kong, Sweden and Finland.

“These people are desperate to find a place of safety and neither legislation nor detention will deter them. It’s sad when some politicians seem to find it irresistible to use hapless boat people as political footballs. There is a better way,” Professor Silove says.

He believes New Zealand can lead the way for a regional solution to the problem by establishing a multi-party agreement on the best way to manage a future mass arrival.

Professor Silove is the director of psychiatry research and teaching at the Mental Health Centre at the University of New South Wales and a keynote speaker at the International Asian, Migrant and Ethnic Minority Health Conference being held this week at the University of Auckland.

His arrival comes in the same week with a Parliamentary Select Committee is hearing oral submissions in the National Government’s controversial. The Bill has received overwhelming opposition in submissions.

ENDS

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