Doing the decent thing

Remember the Zimbabweans? About 2500 of them fled here to escape land seizures and oppression by Robert Mugabe's regime, and were granted short-term work permits or student visas. But now that their residency is set to expire, Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel has offered them a lifeline and pledged that they will not be kicked out when their permits expire.

This is the decent thing to do - we should be providing a haven for those fleeing oppressive regimes. At the same time, though, it does raise the question of why we are extending this treatment to Zimbabweans and not (say) Afghans, Kurds, or Somalis...