Temporary haven for 300 refugees

By Audrey Young

New Zealand will offer temporary refuge to 300 East Timorese for at least three months.

About 100 can be accommodated almost immediately in the Immigration Service resettlement centre in Mangere, Prime Minister Jenny Shipley said yesterday.

"The first 100 could easily be within the next week," she said.

She would not specify the other sites being considered.

But they are understood to include the old Opotiki hospital and nursing home, a Hamilton hostel and the old St Helen's maternity hospital in Wellington.

The request for New Zealand to take refugees had come from Australia and the United Nations.

UN authorities would decide which ones would come here.

"At the moment they need safe haven until East Timor is safe," Mrs Shipley said.

She said the United Nations was keen to see that displaced East Timorese did not go too far from home and that they were able to return home soon.