Illegal migrant ring busted

By EUGENE BINGHAM

A large-scale people-smuggling operation has been uncovered in New Zealand, spiriting hundreds of asylum-seekers into the country carrying false documents.

The Weekend Herald can reveal that the Government is looking to cancel the refugee status of some people who arrived here in the late-1990s and deport them.

The international ring behind the smuggling involves at least one New Zealand passport holder, who is considered a kingpin of the trade in Southeast Asia.

Other agents have moved to New Zealand after years of sending asylum-seekers from the Middle East and central Asia on flights to Auckland. The agents' connections here and their backgrounds have been of intense interest to authorities in New Zealand and Australia trying to stamp out the trade.

The Immigration Service's chief operating officer, Andrew Lockhart, said this week: "It was a concern to find it was so well organised."

A spokesman for the Australian Minister for Immigration, Philip Ruddock, said authorities there had considered charging some of the New Zealand-based smugglers but had decided not to take it further.

"The feeling is that it was a useful exercise and that we gained a lot of information," he said.

After two years of investigations, police in New Zealand have failed to press any charges of large-scale people-smuggling and have left the allegations with Immigration.

The service has already begun to move against 20 people living in Auckland who it says have made false claims of asylum.

If their refugee status is overturned, the service will try to deport them, with any family members found to be here illegally too.

Authorities are reluctant to estimate how many people have come here illegally, although police say it could involve more than 1000 people.

The Weekend Herald has uncovered one man in Auckland who spent 20 years as a people-smuggler before gaining refugee status in New Zealand himself.

Ethnic community sources indicate he is no longer heavily involved in the trade, but he has admitted to sending hundreds of people to New Zealand, Australia and Canada.

Like other smugglers investigated by New Zealand and Australian authorities, the man would arrange travel for people from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan via Asia.

Another refugee who was granted New Zealand citizenship is now based in Indonesia, where he continues to work the trade. It is understood he put 75 of the Tampa refugees on the boat to Australia.

Police and Immigration Service investigations into the smuggling rings began two years ago when the number of people applying for asylum hit 3000 a year. A year after their investigations began, the figure dropped to 1500.

In March 2000, more than 20 homes and businesses around Auckland were raided as part of an investigation codenamed Operation Amid.

More than 7000 documents were seized, including letters, photographs and travel documents that cast doubt on the backgrounds of some refugees.

The documents also revealed the extent of people-trafficking and the involvement of smugglers in New Zealand.

"More than that, [they were] the personal documentation of the players involved which outlines their backgrounds and methods," an immigration source said.

In some of the documents, agents discussed the merits of particular countries over others - New Zealand was spoken of as having "free money".

Mr Lockhart said the extent of the smuggling had "unravelled over time".

"It wasn't like suddenly discovering a whole area of fraud, it was sort of uncovering it and noticing linkages."

Anyone found to have made a false claim for asylum would have his or her status cancelled, Mr Lockhart said.

"We have already identified 20 clear cases and we'll take steps," he said. The process could take 12 months.

Some of the cases before the service involved people who had assumed false identities, others had assumed false nationalities.

The service's refugee branch had introduced new systems, such as linguistic testing and fingerprinting of all asylum-seekers, to reduce the risk of people with false backgrounds slipping through.

Police pressed fraud charges against six Afghans accused of having made false claims in their refugee applications. Two pleaded guilty and were sentenced to nine months' prison. A third was found guilty by a jury last week and will be sentenced next month.

Police did not proceed with charges against three others, including two who were held in Auckland Prison at Paremoremo last year following a national security scare.

The officer in charge of the cases, Detective Sergeant Craig Turley, refused to discuss Operation Amid.

Detective Inspector Bruce Good, of the Auckland police, described it as a difficult inquiry.

Asked why no one had been charged with large-scale people-smuggling, Mr Good said there was insufficient evidence to support cases against particular people.

* Email Eugene Bingham

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Feature: Immigration