WELLINGTON, New Zealand - People-smugglers are looking to
target New Zealand now that Australia’s tough border protection policies
have effectively “closed down” that country to asylum-seeker boats,
Prime Minister John Key said Tuesday.
While the voyage to New
Zealand from places such as Indonesia and Sri Lanka is potentially far
more perilous than trying to reach Australia, Key said people-smugglers
and asylum-seekers were willing to take the risk in the wake of
Canberra’s clampdown.
“We take this very seriously, we know it’s very hard to come to New Zealand, no one’s arguing it’s
an easy distance or journey,” he told TV3.
“But the reality is that as
Australia closes down as a destination for asylum-seekers, they are
trying to open up new frontiers and one of those is New Zealand.”
- Australia was facing record numbers of asylum-seekers before conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott was elected last year on a populist platform of “turning back the boats”.
- Under Canberra’s policy, any asylum-seeker arriving by boat is transferred to remote centres in the Pacific for processing and permanent resettlement.
- No refugee boat has yet reached New Zealand but Sri Lankan police in February arrested 75 would-be asylum-seekers who said were preparing to set off for the country.
Fairfax New Zealand reporting that people-smugglers in Indonesia were about to launch
another attempt from a beach near Jakarta last week but were intercepted
by police.
Wellington introduced laws
last year allowing it to detain groups of asylum-seekers arriving by
boat for six months, in what it said was a precautionary measure.
Key is hoping New Zealand could avoid implementing policies similar to those adopted by Australia.
source: agencies
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