Peters says Men Should Defend Their Own Country

Peters says Men Should Defend Their Own Country

Peters: NZ Should Only Take Women and Children

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters has called for male refugees from Syria to return home and help their country fight ISIS. 

Last week Peters threw his support behind the emergency one-off intake of an extra 600 refugees from Syria, as well as a further 150 over the next three years. However, he suggested that only women and children should be accepted.

Speaking on the Paul Henry Show, Peters reiterated his critical stance on the issue saying New Zealand “could be doing much more, faster”.

“I was looking at the television coverage of this [refugee crisis] out of Hungary — there were a lot of fit young men there that didn’t all seem to be in families,” said Peters. “My concern was, in a crisis like this, you take the women and children first.”

Peters went on to argue that New Zealand and a number of Western allies, including the United States and Australia, have contributed training contingents and troops to the Middle Eastern region occupied by the terror group.

“When you look at the facts that we have a number of Western countries with skin in the game, with their soldiers on the line, including our own, it would be reasonable surely to expect people to defend their own country first,” Peters said.

Peters’ statement came after a week of controversial discussion over whether New Zealand would increase the annual refugee quota or accept a one-off intake from Syria. In response, the National government announced 600 more refugees would be accepted, as well as 150 extra over the next three years.

The announcement was made before the Labour and Green parties put forward their emergency bills to respond to the growing crisis.

Labour has since withdrawn its bill to have an emergency intake of refugees, but the Greens’ attempt to permanently increase the annual quota by 250 people is continuing.

This article first appeared in Issue 23, 2015.
Posted 11:15am Sunday 13th September 2015 by Henry Napier.