Vetting keeps hundreds out

The number of asylum-seekers making it to NZ has plummeted, partly due to airline passenger screening introduced after the September 11 atrocities.

The Advanced Passenger Screening system, designed to improve border security, began in August 2003.

Since then 800 people, not all asylum seekers, have been stopped from coming to NZ, says Deputy Secretary of Labour Mary-Anne Thompson.

The system picks up passport and visa discrepancies and people can be stopped in another country from boarding an aircraft to New Zealand.

Since 2000, the number of asylum-seekers has fallen from about 2500 annually to 500 for the 2004-2005 year.

Those who do get here can appeal for refugee status but most are declined and can be deported.

Sometimes their cases are complex, like that of Abdikarin Ali Haji, who has been ordered to be deported to Somalia despite the UN urging countries not to send people to that war-torn country.