Zealand Immigration Service is embroiled in an embarrassing scandal involving dubious Somali passports

Auckland, NZ, September 12, 2006 – The New Zealand Immigration Service is embroiled in an embarrassing scandal involving dubious Somali passports.

The service buys passports from a South African company in order to deport failed asylum seekers, but according to its own rules the documents are invalid.

A photocopy of a passport the Immigration Service paid a South African company for, looked identical to a fake Somali passport bought at a market - both of which looked different from a genuine Somali passport.

Genuine Somali passports were issued by the last legitimate Somali government before it was overthrown in 1990.

The US, along with other Western nations, says Somali passports are no longer valid - and New Zealand agrees.

According to the Immigration Service's own rules, Somali travel documents are "unacceptable", saying there is "no authority" in Somalia that is recognized by the New Zealand government that can issue passports.

An advocate for refugees is outraged.

"I think it's unbelievable. Somali passports are...widely recognized as being invalid. And yet here our government is aiding and abetting the forging, the issuing and the use of a knowingly invalid passport," says refugees advocate Neville Kay.

"In one word...it's hypocritical. It doesn't make sense. If they want migration processes to be tightened...then surely it has to be done legally."

So how much did the New Zealand government pay for its Somali passports?

The   Immigration Service says is that the cost of removing a deportee varies.

And while it does not recognize Somali passports, in New Zealand it says they are OK to deport people on.

"The reason that we've gone to a company is that the company does exactly the same role for a number of other agencies, for airlines, in terms of issuing documents which allow legitimate entry into countries like Somalia," says group manager for border security Api Fiso.

The department says it uses the passports because the Somali rulers do not accept New Zealand identity papers.

Source: One News

Home | Contact us | Links | Archives