New Zealand expelling former Iraqi minister
New Zealand said today it is expelling a former Iraqi Cabinet minister because he was responsible for chemical weapons production under ousted President Saddam Hussein.
The government revoked the visa of former Iraqi Agriculture and Agrarian Reform Minister Amer Mahdi Al-Khashali on Wednesday after he had been in the country for more than a month – without the government having been aware that he was a minister in a Saddam Cabinet in the early 1980s.
After opposition MP Winston Peters, known for anti-immigrant views, on Wednesday publicly identified the former minister, Al-Khashali was ordered to leave within two weeks.
Peters told Parliament today the Labour-led government appeared unaware that under Saddam, the minister of agriculture “was responsible for chemical weaponry production … and wouldn’t that have been an indicator that this man should not be in this country.”
Deputy Prime Minister Michael Cullen responded: “That is why that man’s permit has been revoked.”
Peters also claimed a former member of Saddam’s elite palace guard, whom he identified as Isaac Meti Yusef Jago, had arrived in New Zealand as a refugee in 2000. The migrant was still in the country, he added.
Cullen asked Peters to provide all names and details of such people so they could be checked by a special team of immigration officials reviewing recent migrants from high-risk states.
A lawyer for Al-Khashali said today his client would fight the visa cancellation.
“We believe that the Immigration Service is working from incomplete or inaccurate information and has been directed to take these actions as a matter of political expediency,” Simon Laurent said.
Laurent told the TV One network on Wednesday it was dangerous for his client to return to Iraq now because of his association with Saddam’s government. “He could face very serious repercussions, either official or unofficial, from the Iraqi population,” he said.
A former senior Iraqi diplomat, Zukhair Mohammed Al-Omar, had his visitor permit revoked on Tuesday when the government said he should not have been allowed into the country as a former spokesman for Saddam’s “repressive regime.”
Al-Omar, who had applied for residency after spending more than a year visiting his son, was ordered to leave.
Immigration Minister Paul Swain said the former Saddam officials were not considered a security risk, but were not wanted in the country.
