Word: zealanders
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...terrorists and criminals hiding in New Zealand or using its passport as cover abroad? A spate of scandals has Kiwis wondering - and worrying. The jailing of a refugee accused of terrorist ties, a citizenship ban on three New Zealand residents, passport fraud charges against two Israeli visitors and a local immigration agency, and a forgery scam that's compromised hundreds of Kiwi passports have made border security a topic nearly as talked-about as rugby. Amid calls from New Zealand First M.P. Ron Mark to "act to protect this country before it is too late," and pleas from Progressive...
...from Malaysia, asked for asylum - and was hustled, under heavy police guard, into a maximum-security jail. Zaoui, a member of his country's banned Islamic Salvation Front party, had been convicted by Algerian, Belgian and French courts of assisting or associating with terrorists. Declaring those rulings "unsafe," New Zealand's Refugee Status Appeals Authority granted Zaoui asylum last August. But the government insisted that his "continued presence in New Zealand constitutes a threat to national security." He is now in his 17th month in jail...
...March, while hundreds protested on Zaoui's behalf, the head of the Security Intelligence Service, Richard Woods, announced that terrorists might be using New Zealand as a "haven ? a place to lie low for a while." The SIS was "identifying more people in or from New Zealand who are of terrorist or other security concern," Woods said. In the past year, he revealed, three New Zealand residents had been refused passports after being ruled "security risks." The opposition National Party wants the three expelled. "If we allow people to come here and stay here even though they're a security...
...impossible that members of terrorist groups are living in New Zealand, says Foreign Minister Goff, but nor is it likely. "Because we're a small country," he says, "we're very nosy people. If people turn up behaving oddly, we tend to notice." (In 2000, Auckland police said they'd busted a plot to blow up Sydney's nuclear reactor during the Olympic Games. The evidence fell apart and all charges against the suspects, two Afghan taxi drivers, were dropped. A retired Australian intelligence officer familiar with the case puts it down to "police hysteria.") The 40,000-strong Muslim...
...There are plans to make it smaller still. Like most developed nations, New Zealand is preparing to fake-proof its passports with a microchip holding the owner's details. But as one border-security scandal followed another, the government swiftly drafted new passport and citizenship laws. Under the proposed changes, immigrants will have to wait five years instead of three before becoming citizens. Marrying a Kiwi won't bring that day forward; having a baby in New Zealand won't necessarily make it a citizen; and the government will be able to cancel the passports of people deemed security risks...