Clark defends refugee decision

Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday defended the Government's treatment of a young Sri Lankan woman who has been granted refugee status by the United Nations, despite being refused asylum here.

The woman, who claimed to have been sexually abused by family members in her home country, was deported from New Zealand two years ago in handcuffs and under sedation.

She was 16 at the time.

With the help of Amnesty International and a New Zealand lawyer she has since been granted refugee status by the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and has been accepted by Canada.

Helen Clark said she understood the UN decision was made on the basis of new information and at no stage had it criticised her Government's decision.

"The refugee status was granted after information came to light which apparently was not available at the time the New Zealand system made its determination," Helen Clark told TV One's Breakfast show.

"The UN High Commission for Refugees has made no criticism of New Zealand whatsoever."

She said she did not know what the new information was.

But Amnesty International New Zealand executive director Ced Simpson said yesterday the only new information could have been that the woman was in genuine danger when she returned to Sri Lanka - something the woman's advocates had claimed all along.

"I'm not sure if that constitutes new information. It simply verifies the concerns we held in the first place," Mr Simpson told Breakfast.

He said the Government's "cavalier" attitude to the case was "embarrassing".

"What we argued at the time ... was that there was insufficient weight being given to the fact that we were talking about a person who was legally still a child who had clearly gone through significant trauma that was not disputed by the Government or any of the agencies that had anything to do with her in New Zealand."

The woman's New Zealand lawyer, Carole Curtis, said she too was unaware of any new information and she found it extremely strange that the Labour Department's immigration service was claiming that was the case.

She said advocates did not try to get the woman back to New Zealand after she was granted refugee status by the UN as it was believed the Government might block the move.

National Party MP Judith Collins said the Government should be ashamed of the way it handled the case.

"The fact that her case for refugee status has been accepted by the UN serves to further illustrate a real lack of understanding and compassion on Labour's part."

The Sri Lankan teenager arrived with her grandmother in 2002 saying they were refugees from Sri Lanka's civil war.

But they switched to the truth - that she was the victim of sexual abuse by a relative - when their case was rejected by the Refugee Status Appeals Authority.

A second hearing by the authority acknowledged the abuse but ruled the family and Sri Lankan state would protect her from revenge attacks.

The case caused a political row at the time and led to the resignation of immigration minister Lianne Dalziel after she misled a journalist over how a letter from the girl's lawyer got into the media.

- NZPA