New Zealand to apologize for 'racist' historic police raids in 1970s
14 June, 2021
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Monday she'll offer a formal apology to New Zealand's Pacific community over "demeaning" police raids that targeted them in the 1970s.
Ardern said the notorious "dawn raids" were completed by police and immigration officials wanting to identify and deport visa overstayers.
Furthermore, she said Pacific islanders were racially profiled, with officials subjecting them to random stop and search without justification.
"They were routinely extreme with demeaning verbal and physical treatment," Ardern told reporters. "The raids and what they represented created deep wounds, while we cannot change our history, we can acknowledge it and seek to right an incorrect."
Ardern said the apology would happen on June 26 at Auckland Town Hall.
New Zealand encouraged migration from Pacific islands such as for example Samoa, Tonga and Fiji after World War II to fill worker shortages as the economy expanded.
However they faced a backlash when there is a downturn in the 1970s, with claims these were taking jobs from New Zealanders.
Minister for Pacific Peoples William Sio, who includes a Samoan background, said the raids were "racist and discriminatory".
Sio fought back tears as he described his own family's experiences.
"The memories are etched in of my father being helpless... someone knocking at your door in the early hours of the morning with a flashlight in your face, disrespecting who owns our home," he said.
"An Alsatian dog frothing at the mouth, wanting to come in without the respect for the persons who live there. It had been quite traumatizing."
Source: japantoday.com
TAG(s):