Two more suspect Iraqis enter NZ

Officials were last night scrambling to find "undesirable" people who have slipped through immigration after it was revealed that five more applications processed at New Zealand's Bangkok office are under scrutiny.

As the immigration debacle continued to dominate politics, an official admitted that all five were Iraqi, at least two were already in New Zealand and the others were understood to have been in the process of coming here.

That is in addition to the two senior members of Saddam Hussein's regime found living in New Zealand this week who have had their visitor's permits revoked by the Government.

One of the men, Amer Mahdi al-Khashali, a former minister in Saddam's Government, has said he will fight to stay in New Zealand.

The other is a former Ambassador to South Africa, Zohair Mohammad al-Omar.

Department of Labour Deputy Secretary Mary Anne Thompson last night defended the Immigration Service's Bangkok office, although all the applications were handled there.

But New Zealand First leader Winston Peters said he had evidence of corruption at the office. He said he knew some staff were taking bribes for successfully processing immigration applications.

"I have had complaints in the last 24 hours from people who were dealing with that office. I trust my informants. There is no doubt in my mind that it was a corrupt office."

Mr Peters also said the Department of Labour was wrong in believing only five "undesirable" people had entered New Zealand.

He said he had a list of names of people living in New Zealand who had roles in Saddam Hussein's oppressive regime. He said he was still compiling the list and would not say how many were on it.

Mr Peters also said that if Mr al-Khashali applied for refugee status, it would be a "disgrace" to grant it.

Mr al-Khashali's lawyer, Simon Laurent, told TV One's Close Up last night that his client would fight to remain in the country.

Publicity surrounding the former agriculture minister, who was nearly 70, gave him further reason to want to stay, Mr Laurent said.

"If he returns to Iraq, he would face serious repercussions."

National MP Tony Ryall also claimed yesterday that he knew of a member of Saddam's police who may have been granted refugee status.

"It is clear the minister has no idea of who is here and who isn't."

Immigration Minister Paul Swain, who is understood to be distancing himself from the embarrassing crisis in the Immigration Service, would not comment, leaving it to Ms Thompson.

She said hundreds of immigration applications from high-risk countries had been reviewed and she had found five which were of concern.

She then backtracked, saying there might be no problem with the applications.

"There are five that I would look at and say maybe there is something here, but that is not to say that there is."

Ms Thompson defended the Bangkok office, saying it processed all applications from the Middle East, meaning it would deal with applicants from high-risk countries.

"We have worked hard over recent times to improve the reputation of our branches, including the Bangkok office, and I want to correct any misperceptions that these applications were conducted in anything but a clean process."

On Tuesday, it was announced that the overseas processing of "high-risk" visa applications had been frozen, a special team would be set up in New Zealand to process them and that all applications from high-risk countries going back two years would be reviewed.

There are understood to be 54 countries regarded as high risk, but Ms Thompson would not name them, saying it would breach security.

Green MP Keith Locke was critical of the Government's new hardline stance on immigration, saying it had fallen into the clutches of "Winston Peters' xenophobia".