New Zealand to clamp down on 'undesirable immigrants'

New Zealand’s government said today it will clamp down on undesirable immigrants after admitting that a former senior diplomat in Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi regime had entered the country and applied for residency.

“We will act to defend our borders against immigration cheats”, Prime Minister Helen Clark said after the unnamed man and his wife were ordered to leave the country.

Clark did not elaborate, but commenting on Monday, Immigration Minister Paul Swain said the case “has highlighted some shortcomings in the department’s information systems. I have been assured that these systems will be strengthened.”

Clark said New Zealand had to be vigilant for migrants “who are determined to cheat” to get into the country.

MP Winston Peters, known for his anti-immigration views, earlier alerted media to another man he branded one of Saddam’s “henchmen” who was in the country.

In parliament, Peters claimed the man was a former cabinet minister in the Saddam government who had entered the country more than a month ago – and was still in New Zealand.

He named the man as “former Minister for Agriculture and Agrarian Reform … Amer Mahdi Alkhashali”, alleging he was a former Iraqi delegate to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and UNESCO who had arrived in New Zealand using a United Nations passport.

Clark said her government would check Peters’ claims.

Peters also demanded the government release the name of the former senior Iraqi diplomat, who he said had been posted to Cuba and Sri Lanka by the Hussein regime.

He said he would reveal “the true facts” about the man who had slipped into New Zealand to visit children living here – then applied for residency.

Swain warned that naming the former diplomat could help the man gain refugee status.

“One of the issues that is raised in refugee status is that if people go home they might be persecuted. If the name is out there, then internationally it will be out there and it may well strengthen his hand,” Swain said.

The Iraqi currently was not seeking refugee status and he had been sent a strong message that he was not welcome, Swain said. The man was free to go to any country that would have him.

He said the man was “unsuitable” to remain in New Zealand because he had been a mouthpiece for Saddam’s oppressive regime in a number of countries.