Somali ordered back to war-torn home

By THERESA GARNER

Abdikarim Ali Haji is due to become the first Somali person deported from New Zealand. Associate Immigration Minister Damien O'Connor has issued a removal order against the 28-year-old who has been in the country for five years.

Lawyers for Mr Haji, who has been in an Auckland prison cell for three months, say New Zealand will go against international practice if it sends the asylum-seeker back to his anarchy-stricken homeland.

The same law firm which acts for Algerian Ahmed Zaoui has asked Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel to intervene.

Lawyer Claudia Farry yesterday questioned whether the Government can send Somalis to their home country when it has no functioning Government.

She said the United States had blocked deportations to Somalia until at least September next year. "At which time I presume they will reassess the situation in Somalia to see if the country is safe for people to be returned to."

The lawyers' submissions were based "solely on the fact that the international community ... is very much opposed to returning Somalis to Somalia under the current circumstances, because no one in Somalia really has any access to protection", she said.

Ms Farry also said: "We find it very difficult to accept that a valid travel document could have been obtained from a country that has no functioning government."

Damien O'Connor said last night that the Immigration Service had worked through Mr Haji and with Somalia to obtain travel documents that were accepted by the airline and the country into which he would travel.

Neville Kay from the Reunity Trust refugee support group said Mr Haji applied for residency on his arrival five years ago.

"In the time it has taken the Government to decide on his application he has obtained the necessary work permit to be continuously employed without resorting to social welfare benefits.

"Other questions include how anyone can be returned to a country which has no functioning airport or sea port."

Mr O'Connor said last night that Mr Haji would be removed to South Africa, but he did not know the escort arrangements in place once Mr Haji was there.

The president of the Somali Association, Mahad Warsame, said he was deeply concerned about his friend of four years.

"Every day people are dying there, every day is war."

Mr Haji was moved from Auckland Central Remand Prison to Mt Eden on Tuesday.

This month, the Crown Law Office said Ms Dalziel had no legal grounds to challenge a decision that stopped her deporting a Somali convicted of rape and kidnapping.

The Deportation Review Tribunal allowed Hassan Ahmed Shaqlane to stay, saying that he risked torture if returned to Somalia.