The New Zealand Immigration Service has started a major blitz on Arab visitors and residents, even those who have been granted permanent residency or refugee status, investigating their backgrounds, and aiming to cancel the permits and deport anyone found "unsuitable". This is like a return to the dawn raids of the mid 70's - except those at least were aimed at people who were in the country illegally. Here, Immigration is targeting legal residents on the basis of race. Worse, they are judging them not on the grounds of compliance with our immigration regulations, but on political considerations. Anyone whose presence might potentially be embarrassing to the government - anyone who might be the subject of a future Parliamentary question, in other words - will be hustled out of the country regardless of whether they have complied with the law or not, using the Minister's discretionary powers.
As an example of how this leads to injustice, we need only consider the case of Zukhair Mohammed al-Omar, the former Iraqi diplomat fingered by Immigration in response to Winston's claims. According to his son he has been a diplomat since 1964, and was not appointed by Saddam's regime. And according to Campbell Live tonight, he had been granted a certificate of non-conviction by the Coalition Provisional Authority - meaning that they were satisfied that he had not participated in the numerous atrocities of Saddam's regime. In other words, he had not done anything wrong - yet he is now facing deportation.
Is this what we stand for now? Deporting people who have complied with all our laws, and who have committed no crime, simply because some politician takes objection to their presence here? Trampling our fundamental values of justice and fairness in our headlong rush to respond to Winston's xenophobic dog-whistle?
Surely we're a better country than that. Aren't we?
Ah, I was hoping someone would pick this up when I saw the stories on Scoop. I share your concern about this. What was not clear to me from the initial story is whether in fact, as you suggest, the immigrants of arab extraction are going to be rounded up and deported based on race/ethnicity and regardless of whether or not they've done anything wrong, or if the immigration authorities are merely double-checking everyone from a list of countries to see if there *are* any who've done something wrong and slipped through the net. Do you have more info on that than was in the original Scoop article? I would have a *major problem* with the former, but would only feel *uncomfortable* about the latter.
ReplyDeleteThey're double checking anyone of arab extraction. But as these are people who are here legally, and the criteria for judgement is primarily political (perpetrating crimes against humanity not being laid down in the law as a reason for exclusion), it's reason for significant discomfort.
ReplyDeleteLabour/Helen is becoming increasingly (distressingly) willing to navigate by media rather than morals.
ReplyDeleteThe further they go down this track, the more they actually empower Winston et al to set the social/political agenda.
And the more de-humanised the members themselves become in the process.
I would like the Greens (and Alliance) to make a principled commitment that they will not give confidence and supply to any coalition with NZF in it - and indeed will vote with the Nats to defeat any such coalition at the first opportunity.
ReplyDeleteWhy aren't the Nats sticking up for human rights here? They always say they favour the individual against the State - is this only for upper class white people?
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