A Palestinian refugee who says he was targeted in Mt Eden prison after the Christchurch shootings fears asylum seekers will die behind bars if the government doesn't do more to keep them safe.
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Walid, who is Muslim, left Lebanon just over a year ago to seek asylum in New Zealand. He said there was no life for him there.
"Lebanese government they are giving you the right to live, only that. They don't give you the right to work, no right for medication, no right for education, no right for anything," he said.
He bought a fake Emirate passport and travelled to New Zealand via Sri Lanka.
But rather than ending up in a detention centre as he had expected, he was taken to prison.
"When I arrive in Auckland I destroy my fake passport and I came to Immigration New Zealand and gave them my real passport and all identification I have.
"Then they interview me about why I am seeking asylum - before the interview the lady she told me, you have two options; either I'll give you a visa to go out, or I'll put you in prison.
"But I didn't know that prison means prison, I think that she means detention centre - for refugees."
He said if he knew he would be taken to jail he would have been on the next flight out of here - instead he was taken from the airport to Mount Eden Prison, despite not being changed with a crime.
For the first few days he didn't have access to his heart medication and collapsed in jail.
He ended up spending six months there - but after March 15 he said things became much scarier, with inmates he said had links to White Power, attacking him for his religion.
"Some Muslim prisoners came to protect me and it was a very big fight, blood was everywhere.
"They put all the prisoners in their units, because too many people they lost their conscious. Blood was everywhere and I never forget the scene," he said.
Corrections has confirmed there was a fight in Mt Eden but in a statement said the man who Walid claimed was defending him was the instigator.
It said two of the three people involved were treated in hospital, but there was no evidence to suggest it was gang or racially motivated - as none of them had a declared affiliation with White Power.
Walid's situation is not a one-off - figures released to Checkpoint under the Official Information Act show 80 asylum seekers have been imprisoned since 2014 - 16 just this year.
A handful have been behind bars more than 400 days - on average they're spending 166 days in jail.
Immigration New Zealand said asylum seekers are only held in Corrections facilities when there are no alternatives.
But Walid's lawyer, Davoud Mansouri-Rad said that wasn't good enough.
"There was no resaon I believe for him to be kept in a penal institution, he could be detained maybe in Māngere refugee settlement centre - he had never committed a crime in his whole life."
Mansouri-Rad has represented dozens of imprisoned asylum seekers over the years - he said they were often beaten up or targeted.
One client who had applied for asylum based on their sexual orientation had to spend two months behind bars.
"He was put in Mt Eden prison, he was assaulted there, because of his sexual orientation - it was nearly after two months that we convinced the district court judge that this man needed to be released."
Asylum Seekers Trust general manager Tim Maurice said New Zealand was often critical of Australia's refugee policy - but things here weren't much better.
"It's very easy for us to say Australia isn't doing such a good job looking after their refugees and we agree, those people do not deserve to be detained for over five years on an Island .. asking for a safe place to live."
He said only 510 people claimed asylum in New Zealand last year - and relaxing rules around imprisonment was unlikely to cause that number to skyrocket.
"Because of the difficulty of getting a boat here - in terms of mass arrivals we've never had one and it's unlikely anyone has ever got close."
About five percent ask for refugee status immediately after landing in New Zealand, and nearly 60 percent within three months of arriving.
Immigration New Zealand said each individual's circumstances are considered when deciding if prison is appropriate - including safety, and security considerations.
Davoud Mansouri-Rad said while checks and balances for new arrivals are necessary - prison is not. Walid agrees.
He said the New Zealand government should stop detaining asylum seekers in jail - and said if they absolutely had to, they needed to be separated from prisoners to be kept safe.
But having come out the other side of a rough start to his New Zealand life, Walid's focused on the future and staying positive.
"Half of this time I spend in prison and half of this time I spend out. Yeah New Zealand's a very nice country, it's worth to come here because here I feel like I am a human being again, i have same rights like everyone here."