Categories Under Which Refugees Are Accepted Into New Zealand
There are two pathways that refugees find their way into New Zealand. The first is a quota agreement with UNHCR. The second is by way of an onshore claim to refugee status made after arrival in New Zealand. The status is then confirmed under conventions.
Each year New Zealand accepts 750 refugees as part of an agreement with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, whereby their status has been ‘mandated’ or authenticated by the UNHCR. New Zealand is one of fewer than 20 countries to offer a resettlement programme and has done so for more than 20 years. Even fewer countries make a commitment like New Zealand to reserving a place for women at risk, medical/disabled, and emergency protection cases within their quota. In doing so they offer a preferential option for those who are already marginalised and vulnerable, and the most difficult to place. For this New Zealand has gained international respect for its humanitarianism.
In addition to this quota New Zealand receives spontaneous asylum-seekers, whose claim is then either approved or declined by the Refugee Status Branch of the Immigration New Zealand, or by the Refugee Status Appeals Authority. In 2005, 1,585 refugee status applications were received, but only 12.5% were found to be genuine .
Refugees have also entered New Zealand in exception circumstances when requested by UNHCR. In 1999, in response to Kosovo humanitarian crisis, New Zealand accepted over 400 Kosovars for resettlement who had family in New Zealand. Again in 2001, New Zealand accepted resettlement for 130 Afghan asylum-seekers picked up by the freighter, MS Tampa, after their craft capsized in the Indian Ocean.
Read more about this topic: Refugee Migration Into New Zealand
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