We would have let Sri Lankan girl stay, say United Future

11.45am

Government ally United Future would have allowed a sexually-abused Sri Lankan girl to stay in New Zealand, MP Bernie Olgilvy said today.

The 16-year-old and her grandmother were flown out of Auckland last night after strenuous efforts by the girl's lawyers, Carole Curtis and Phillipa Cunningham, to keep her here failed.

The removal came after Associate Immigration Minister Damien O'Connor told the Immigration Service he was not changing his original decision not to intervene in the case.

But Mr Olgilvy said the case called for compassion.

"For compassionate reasons, I think I would have been pretty much erring on the side of being much more favourable to the girl and leaving her here," he told NZPA.

"That would definitely be our position."

Mr Olgilvy also questioned how the Government could monitor the girl's care back in the Sri Lanka, as it had said it would.

"You can't put pressure on another sovereign state to do what your will is," he said.

"Clearly there are services there. How rudimentary and effective they are, one wonders."

Green MP Keith Locke called for immigration procedures to be reviewed, saying the "disgraceful expulsion" of the girl did not end the matter.

"People are ashamed that the Government's actions are seriously eroding our reputation as a caring, compassionate society," Mr Locke said.

"It is simply unacceptable in a civilised society to drag a highly distressed young woman on to a plane and send her back to a situation in which she may well face more sexual abuse."

The case clearly contravened the Convention on the Rights of the Child and procedures must be reviewed to ensure it did not happen again, Mr Locke said.

However, the head of the Refugee and Migrant Service (RMS), Peter Cotton said the decision "may not have necessarily been incorrect".

"While I'm not doubting the fact that this girl has suffered consistent and habitual abuse, the critical thing is that a proper care and protection plan is in place," he told NZPA today.

"And I'm not sure that New Zealand is better placed to do that than Sri Lanka.

"In fact making a new life in another country has a whole set of other challenges for people anyway, it's not an easy thing to do."

While the service had not been involved in the case, which fell outside its mandate, he said it had been "pretty clear from the outset" that the girl would not meet the definition of refugee under international conventions.

To qualify as refugees, people had usually to have suffered persecution at the hands of the state or terrorist groups, and be unable to avail themselves of the protection of one's own country.

"That was the big issue for the Refugee Status Appeals Authority, and I personally would agree with the interpretation.

"Sri Lanka has very well developed medical facilities in both the primary and mental health sectors -- in fact, quite a lot of senior doctors in New Zealand are Sri Lankan -- so you can't argue that the country itself lacks medical expertise."

It would have been better if the minister or associate minister of immigration had made it clear from the outset what kind of assurances they had received from the Sri Lankan Government, he said.

"I don't think there would have been such a drama about it all."

Since the humanitarian programme (which applied to relatives of people who were already legally resident in New Zealand) was scrapped by the Government in October 2001, the only recourse for people who fell outside the legal provisions for migrants and refugees was to appeal to the minister.

"I imagine that since the removal of the humanitarian programme, there are many, many cases ending up on the minister's desk because it's now the only route....

"So while the minister has the power to over-ride any decision and to legalise the status of somebody if he or she so chooses, they're not inclined to make decisions lightly."

National MP Nick Smith accused Mr O'Connor of double standards, saying he was more sympathetic to a convicted drug dealer than to a young sex abuse victim.

"Damien O'Connor's decision to deport a 16-year-old sex abuse victim to Sri Lanka contrasts with his damning, as an opposition MP, of the previous government's decision to deport the Schier's to Germany from Maruia because of drug convictions," Dr Smith said.

"The case of Guenther Schier was championed by Mr O'Connor despite police finding 500g of cannabis at their Maruia home, and a failure by Mr Schier to declare two drug convictions from his home country of Germany to New Zealand immigration."

Mr O'Connor demanded clemency for the Schier's on compassionate grounds, then accused the then minister of being callous for deporting Mr Schier.

"It defies belief that now, as minister, he is taking such a hard line against this young woman."

- NZPA