At his post-Cabinet news conference, on Monday John Key said he had been wrong and the numbers were much lower.
Mr Key had repeated the claim several times that thousands and thousands of refugees make it into the country, despite the annual refugee quota being just 750.
He said many more came in under the family reunification programme.
He corrected his comments that up to 4000 refugees were accepted each year.
“I was recalling a figure in that region which actually referred to the total number of the full refugee programme, which is a three-year programme.
“The number of refugees, asylum seekers and family members per year is obviously smaller than that.
Key had claimed thousands are coming into the country each year under the family reunification programme.
But refugee advocate Murdoch Stephens said John Key was either mistaken or being deliberately misleading.
When challenged on the issue, Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse disputed that Mr Key had made such comments.
Mr Woodhouse dismissed the comments again in Parliament late last week when asked about the matter by Green MP Denise Roche. Read More
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