New screening process sees more visas being withdrawn

Visas granted to some applicants from "high risk" countries have been withdrawn after they were identified through a new screening process, Immigration Minister David Cunliffe said today.

The screening group was set up 18 months ago to deal with applications from 21 unidentified "high risk" countries, and it has also been sifting through files going back several years.

Mr Cunliffe confirmed that some visas had been withdrawn as a result of screening.

"We've found some, and we've dealt with those," he said on National Radio.

Asked whether he could say this meant some people had left the country, he replied: "Yes, I can".

It was revealed yesterday that the screening group was rejecting 24 per cent of current applications from "high risk" countries, compared with a rejection rate of 9 per cent before the new process was introduced.

That led to the National Party asking how many people had been allowed in who would now be considered security risks.

Mr Cunliffe said today it was impossible to be 100 per cent sure that there were no risky immigrants in the country, but the procedures were as good as anywhere in the world.

"The rate of finds of files that we think are genuinely risky isn't high," he said.

"The key message is that we're a lot more sure today than we were a few years ago."

Mr Cunliffe said the screening group had nearly completed the checking of past applications.

Among those getting special attention are applicants who have specialist skills which could be wrongly used.

Mr Cunliffe said yesterday the group included people like physicists, whose skills could be used to make weapons of mass destruction.

Green Party MP Keith Locke said people having the hardest time getting a visa were from the Middle East, South Asia and Africa.

He said visa approvals for Iraqis dropped from 214 in 2004/05 to 92 in 2005/06, for Zimbabweans from 923 to 306, for Burmese from 116 to 72 and for Somalians from 112 to 45.

"We have yet to see proof that anyone convicted for carrying out terrorist attacks, or anyone legitimately suspected of terrorist intentions, has ever tried to enter New Zealand," Mr Locke said.

"What MPs like me are finding is more complaints from New Zealanders that the Immigration Profiling Group is stopping their mother, father, brother or sister from coming for a visit."

- NZPA