Locke Keith: Immigration Act 2009 Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
Locke Keith: Immigration Act 2009 Amendment Bill — First Reading Second Reading In Committee Third Reading 
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KEITH LOCKE (Green) 
: 
 I take up the challenge from my colleague Clayton Cosgrove with great pleasure. Of the people whom he referred to like the Iranian Christian convert who was a cook and the four Iranian Christian converts from Islam who served long terms in prison from several months to 2 years—and 4 years in Amir Mohebbi’s case—every one of them now has proper immigration status in New Zealand and is living here as a legitimate person in our country. They are doing very well. They are not committing any crimes. Clayton Cosgrove’s idea that somehow those people should be rejected was actually a view that was turned down by the immigration authorities in New Zealand in the end. The problem was that someone like Amir Mohebbi had to be detained for 4 years because he did not want to be deported back to Iran where he may well have been persecuted as a Christian convert from Islam. 
Hon Clayton Cosgrove 
: The UN didn’t agree with that. 
KEITH LOCKE 
: In regard to Clayton Cosgrove’s reference to the UN I say that the UN does not always get it right. There is a simple fact governing the UN’s attitude to the situation in Iran which is that Iran takes many thousands of refugees from Afghanistan. The UN does not want to endanger that so it does not look at— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: I am trying to get my head around exactly which part of clauses 1 2 3 and 4— 
KEITH LOCKE 
: I am responding to— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: No I cautioned him as well. One errant speech that is quite broad does not open space for everybody else. We are debating the Committee stage. The member can make illustrations in comparison but he must tie them back to the clauses. 
KEITH LOCKE 
: I relate this point back to the Immigration Act and the provisions in it as I did in my original speech. But when a member stands up and spends virtually his whole contribution criticising me on those points surely I have the right to defend myself on those points. I think that the whole question that the United Nations Human Rights Committee raised and on which it was critical of New Zealand’s immigration procedures in the Immigration Act section 474 of which we are implementing was on the question of non-refoulement—that is people being returned to their country of origin where they may be persecuted. That was specifically stated in the report issued on 25 March by the United Nations Human Rights Committee. 
In the case of the Iranian Christian converts from Islam the Iranian Lower House has passed the first reading of a law providing for the execution of people who convert from Islam the religion of their birth to Christianity. It is actually in a law that has passed its first reading in the Iranian Parliament. 
The other thing that we have to put in that context is the fact that a few days ago Amnesty International issued a report on executions around the world. No. 1 was China and near the top was Iran where they have been executing people particularly since the recent protests. If we combine all these factors particularly where asylum seeker’s names are known we know that people who are deported back to Iran are under some risk of persecution. We have to take all of that into account. We should not let people just rot in jail for the rest of their lives in violation of habeas corpus and have provisions in our Immigration Act that allow that to happen just because they will not sign bits of paper. We cannot allow them to be deported back to Iran to possible persecution and even execution in terms of the law being passed through the Iranian Parliament. That is why many Christian people particularly those of the Catholic faith but also of other faiths were so strong in their support for the people whom they knew were good parishioners in their church. They knew that they were true converts. I take Mr Cosgrove’s point that some people can use that as an excuse and no doubt some people have used that as an excuse but the people in the cases that he raised are now solid determined people with the proper immigration status in New Zealand. 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: Let me say right now that I blame myself for that; I do. I am flagellating myself. The score is now one all and we will now talk about the commencement date and the issues surrounding that.