Zaoui case threatens NZ reputation for tolerance says report

The "xenophobic reaction" to Algerian asylum-seeker Ahmed Zaoui is threatening New Zealanders' reputation for tolerance, a left-leaning British newspaper reports.

Under the headline "Not-so-nice New Zealand", a report from Auckland by the Guardian's David Fickling compares the image New Zealand created when welcoming Tampa refugees in 2001 with its treatment of Mr Zaoui.

The university professor and elected Algerian MP, whose party was overthrown by the military in 1991, has been in jail in Auckland since arriving on a false passport and seeking refugee status more than a year ago.

Police and the Immigration Service suspected he was a terrorist and the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) issued a certificate saying he was a "threat to national security".

But the independent Refugee Status Appeals Authority ruled in August that he was a genuine refugee.

Fickling's report posted on the Guardian Unlimited website likens Mr Zaoui's treatment to a "Kafkaesque farce" or "Keystone Kops".

The report also refers to the recent anti-immigration pamphlet from New Zealand First leader Winston Peters.

Fickling says: "Popular xenophobia tends to emerge from nowhere, sweeping all before it in a squall of indignation."

- NZPA