Winston on immigrants

One thing that Winston Peters has always railed against is immigration. That was especially ironic when his deputy leader Peter Brown was an English immigrant, but that's another story.

But Winston's new target is immigrants from Afghanistan; a very small and specific group of potential immigrants; 3News reports (with our emphasis added):

Prime Minister John Key says he won't close the door on Afghan interpreters who say their lives are at risk after working with New Zealand troops.

Twenty-six interpreters work with the Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Bamiyan. They say the Taliban will target them as soon as the troops pull out.

When the PRT leaves Afghanistan in April next year, they are planning to leave behind the interpreters. But Mr Key wants to be certain the risk is as bad as has been presented before he welcomes them here.

“We just need to assess the risks – whether the risks are real and genuine to them,” says Mr Key. “We need to work through the issue and see what it might all mean. I'm not closing the door to them.”

But by opening the door at all, New Zealand First says it could be impossible to close again.

“Well they will have effectively jumped the UN queue for a start,” says Winston Peters. “The second thing is they will be bringing hundreds of thousands as well with them. That’s the previous model.”

This is bad form from the NZ First leader, and he needs to be called out on it. The Afghan interpreters have put themselves at risk to help NZDF personnel, and they will be targets for reprisals from the Taleban on NZDF forces withdraw from Afghanistan next year.

If anyone has earned the privilege of an invitation to become a New Zealand resident it is these brave Afghanis. Winston Peters is again seeking to scratch the redneck itch. To be suggesting that they will bring "hundreds of thousands as well" with them is absurd.

Playing politics with a genuine humanitarian issue such as this is Winston Peters at his absolute worst, and we condemn Peters' tirade. Perhaps he should sit down and take some counsel from former NZF MP and former soldier Ron Mark.