WELLINGTON Independent MP Gordon Copeland has called on the Government to halt the deportation of Iranians living in New Zealand who have converted to Christianity. Politicians and Christian leaders have in recent years lobbied for the release of Iranian overstayers who have been imprisoned because they have no residency status in New Zealand.

The Government has tried to deport some of the overstayers, but converts fear for their lives if they are returning to a country under sharia law.

Immigration Minister Clayton Cosgrove told Mr Copeland that the Government takes advice from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, who had not supported the contention that Christians face the death penalty in Iran for apostasy.

Despite that, Mr Copeland said, other countries have stopped sending Iranian converts back to their home country. New Zealand, if it continues to deport Iranians, could be contributing to their execution.

According to an April 15 story from Reuters, apostasy along with murder, adultery, rape, armed robbery and drug trafficking is punishable by death under sharia law, practised in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

This countrys foundations are based upon liberty of conscience and freedom of religion, including the freedom to change ones religion, Mr Copeland said. We abolished the death penalty about 40 years ago and its application anywhere in the world is abhorrent to New Zealanders.

In these circumstances, it is simply unconscionable to continue deportation.

Mr Copeland said any claim of Christian conversion needed to be authenticated by clergy or other pastoral workers before the Refugee Status Appeals Authority.

If that testimony affirms a genuine conversion, then it should be accepted and asylum granted to the claimant, Mr Copeland said.