New Zealand backs UN migration deal as Australia says no

While the UN Compact on Migration was adopted by 164 governments, New Zealand has been mulling its options amid lobbying from across the political spectrum.

The Australian government is considering a major shift on immigration policy at “senior levels”.

Source: AAP

New Zealand won't be joining Australia in refusing to sign a non-binding United Nations migration agreement and has called claims the deal would undermine its national sovereignty "falsehoods".

, despite having been actively negotiating the wording for two years, because it would compromise Australia's border security and immigration settings.

In a decision announced on Wednesday afternoon, New Zealand Foreign Minister Winston Peters said his country would be supporting the deal and that legal advice to his administration showed the agreement was "neither legally binding nor constraining on this country setting its own migration policies".

 


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Published 19 December 2018 4:55pm
By Saleem Al-Fahad


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