Summary of NZ Involvement in Refugee Resettlement
Even before the 1951 United Nations Convention was being adopted by member states, New Zealand accepted refugees.
Those granted refugee status prior to the UNHCR Convention were
- 1100 Jewish refugees during the 1930s
- 837 Polish refugees, mostly children arrived in 1944
- 4,500 refugees from Europe between 1949 and 1952
New Zealand acceded to the UNHCR Convention in 1960, and refugee policy is based on the obligations that flow from that, namely to offer protection to refugees. The text is currently set out in the Sixth Schedule of the Immigration Act 1987. The immigration act is not a description of policy, but rather a framework for assessing and determining claims made by people in New Zealand seeking refugee status. This act is currently under review, and major changes to the appeal process and deportation are proposed.
Those granted refugee status post the signing of the UNHCR Convention were:
- Hungarian refugees following 1956 Hungarian revolution
- Czechoslovaks from the 1968 Prague uprising
- Persecuted Chinese
- Asians fleeing Uganda in the 1970s
- Chileans fleeing General Pinochet in the 1970s
- Jews and East Europeans fleeing Soviet Union in the 1970s
- Those fleeing wars in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in the 1970s and 1980s
- Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan arrive in 1990s
- Burma, Somalia, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Sudan and the former Yugoslavia in 1990s
- Since 2000, Burundi, Eritrea and Djibouti
Read more about this topic: Refugee Migration Into New Zealand
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