A JOURNALIST who fled Iran and then exposed Australia’s degrading treatment of asylum-seekers while being held against his will for six years has been granted refugee status in New Zealand.
Immigration New Zealand on Friday confirmed that Behrouz Boochani had been given the status, which allows him to legally stay in the country and gives him a path to citizenship.
Boochani, 37, said while it was huge step forward to have certainty about his own future, the development had left him with mixed feelings.
“I feel relieved, it’s the end of very long story, my personal story,” Boochani said. “But on the other side, the whole story still remains, and I’m only part of whole story. This policy of Australia still keeps people in indefinite detention.”
While the numbers of asylum-seekers being held in offshore detention camps by Australia has been significantly reduced over the years, Boochani said there are
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