Answers sought over refugee
The National Party is calling for the Government to be more upfront about what is happening with Behrouz Boochani, a Kurdish refugee and author who arrived in New Zealand last November and may now be seeking asylum.
Boochani arrived in Christchurch after being granted a visitor visa to attend a literary festival – it is understood he is still in New Zealand.
He had spent more than six years in an Australian detention centre on Manus Island; there he wrote his book No Friend But the Mountains on his phone, which won two major literary prizes in Australia.
Boochani had indicated he would consider seeking asylum here but under New Zealand law ministers and officials cannot discuss any details of individual claims, or even confirm if an application has been made.
Under immigration law, someone seeking asylum can be granted a temporary visa so they can live and work in New Zealand while their application is being considered, a process that can take several months.
National’s immigration spokesman, Stuart Smith, said National was questioning whether Boochani truly intended to leave New Zealand after a month, as he would have been required to state on his visitor visa application.
In applying for a visa people had to show they were a ‘‘genuine tourist or visitor’’, said Smith, and state their intention to leave.
In an interview with the ABC before he arrived here, Smith said Boochani indicated then he had ‘‘no intention of leaving New Zealand’’ once his visa expired.
There was no justification for using a visitor visa to get to New Zealand in order to then seek asylum, Smith said.
‘‘He had been accepted for asylum in the United States, so it’s not like a normal case of someone claiming asylum when they get in the country that has nowhere else to go – quite clearly he did.’’
There was a ‘‘bad odour’’ around the whole application process, Smith said.
‘‘But what’s happened since we don’t know, and we won’t know possibly at all.’’
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern told Morning Report yesterday that by law she was not able to comment on an individual’s legal status or applications.
‘‘Generally of course we have an expectation that people, when they are in New Zealand, they are here legally and Immigration takes action if they are not.’’ – RNZ