Asylum-seekers need our help, says Locke

By RUTH BERRY


Green MP Keith Locke says the Government must intervene in the tragedy unfolding on Nauru.

The MP was responding to reports on the state of despair of the 284 asylum-seekers on the island, including some hunger strikers reportedly close to death.

Members of the group have already been told to go home to Afghanistan, after failing "refugee" tests. But they say the assessments were faulty and they face possible death if they return.

Mr Locke said yesterday that the Australian Government had turned Nauru into the Guantanamo Bay of the Pacific.

"We have quite rightly campaigned against nuclear testing on Mururoa and sent peacekeepers to East Timor and the Solomons. Why are we so silent in the face of such injustice so close to home?"

If Afghanistan was the safe place it was now maintained to be, it was hard to see why New Zealand troops were stationed there, he said.

New Zealand should initiate urgent talks with all the parties involved and demand that human rights - such as ensuring asylum-seekers had access to lawyers of their choice - be respected in Nauru.

But duty minister Steve Maharey said New Zealand's position had not changed since last week.

The Government said then that it had not been asked to take in the Afghans and its hands were tied until the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees reassessed the asylum-seekers' refugee status.