Peters says he won't help Government identify undesirables

Winston Peters

New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters says he will not help the Government identify any more undesirable foreigners who have entered New Zealand.

Mr Peters has been tormenting the Government in recent weeks by identifying visitors to New Zealand whose past lives do not fit the Government's criteria for residency.

Last week Mr Peters revealed that former Iraqi government minister Amer Mahdi Al-Khshali was in New Zealand.

Yesterday Mr Al-Khshali said in a statement through his Auckland lawyer that his life had been put in danger after he was named by Mr Peters in Parliament in "an abuse of the New Zealand parliamentary process for political gain".

Prime Minister Helen Clark said Mr Peters has strengthened Mr Al-Khshali's legal rights by naming him.

Helen Clark said Mr Peters should hand over any further names he has so the Government can deal with them and remove any undesirable visitors.

Mr Peters told National Radio this morning that he would not be handing over names of more undesirable people in New Zealand to Helen Clark and Immigration Minister Paul Swain.

"For five long years I have been sending files to his predecessor Lianne Dalziel and to this minister... as have other informants... and never once have I ever received a reply," Mr Peters said.

The Government was trying to divert responsibility for its failure to have strong border controls, he told National Radio.

Mr Peters said the Government had been warned about corruption and failed to act because it was a "soft touch".

"The Bangkok office is a sorry, sick mess. What you have got there is trafficking people for money and we are told that everything is above board. Frankly no one is going to believe that."

Mr Peters said he knew of more cases, but refused to immediately disclose them. Later today he would continue to use Parliament to hold the Government accountable, he said.

Helen Clark said she did not believe Mr Peters' claims there were fundamental problems with the visa approvals process.

"Two people out of 2.25 million visitors who come here every year. If that's the size of the problem I think you'd have to agree it's not a massive one," she told her post-cabinet press conference.

On Sunday Mr Peters identified another former Iraqi official living in New Zealand.

He said the man, Fakhri Sabri Mohammed, was the former mayor of Anbar district, which includes rebel hotspot Fallujah.

But Mr Mohammed, 63, said he was a whistleblower who fled Saddam Hussein's regime in fear for his life, arriving in New Zealand as a refugee in March 2003 with his wife and two daughters.

On Thursday Mr Peters named a man he claimed was once a member of Saddam's elite palace guard, Isaac Meti Yousef Jago.

Earlier in the week his disclosures led to the cancellation of a visitor permit issued to a former Iraqi ambassador.

- NZPA