Protests by refugees

Press, 15 June 1978, Page 16

Protests by refugees

Some New Zealanders may have been embarrassed or annoyed that the first ambassador to New Zealand from a united Vietnam was greeted in Wellington by protesters. They may have felt that those who have been admitted to New Zealand as political refugees should have refrained from expressing their opinions in a manner that might have displeased a foreign government. But the risk of such displeasure is certainly not ground enough to discourage refugees from exercising the political rights New Zealanders enjoy. Refugees are admitted to New Zealand out of a concern for their personal plight, but most of them will obviously be. from the circumstances of their arrival here, people with strong political convictions. To add to their distress at being in exile by expecting them to quell their natural impulses to give expression to those convictions could negate the good spirit aroused by New Zealand’s willingness to give them refuge.

The entry of political refugees is of benefit not only to the refugees. New Zealand itself benefits from the social and cultural diversity they bring and from the information, however onesided it may be, which they can impart about the political situation in their

countries. Were New Zealand subjecting refugees to political tests, so that only those who had fled from Left-wing or Right-wing repression were admitted, there might be a danger that politically vociferous refugees would create tensions within New Zealand society or project a distorted image of New Zealand attitudes abroad. But a balance has been maintained. The two recent instances of “political” activity by refugees in New Zealand have shown Chileans in a hunger strike against the Right-wing Government of Chile and, this week, Vietnamese in a demonstration aimed at a representative of the Left-wing Government of Vietnam. Should any foreign government or its representative complain about the freedom New Zealand is according its refugees to express their opinions, they should be told firmly that New Zealand places great store on freedom of political expression and does not intend to curb the freedom of any group to make any political point in any manner it wishes, provided that its actions are within the law. The only exception should be if a foreign government asks the New Zealand Government to cut off any flow of funds from New Zealand when these funds are clearly being used to support terrorism or promote violence.