Refugee quota to rise from 1000 to 1500: PM Ardern

New Zealand will raise the annual refugee quota from 1000 to 1500 in July 2020, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has confirmed.

Ms Ardern made the announcement at Parliament yesterday. “This is the right thing to do. It fulfils New Zealand’s obligation to do our bit and provide a small number of people, displaced by war and disaster each year, a place to call home.”

The previous National government had increased the number from 750, where it had sat for 30 years.

Labour campaigned on increasing the refugee quota to 1500 over three years, and providing the funding to manage refugee resettlement.

Ms Ardern said the 2020 timeframe was a “simple question” of logistics.

“We need to make sure we’ve got the space, and facilities at the refugee settlement centre in Mangere, we need to make sure the location services are provided with the support that they need.”

The Greens wanted the quota lifted significantly higher - closer to 6000 but have welcomed the decision.

While in Nauru for the Pacific Islands Forum, NZ First leader Winston Peters said his party had “never made a commitment to double the refugee quota”.

At the announcement today he said he had “no reservations” at all, referring reporters to a speech he made last year.

“Saying that we could envisage the target being seriously increased but there were provisions we had to get ready for first.”

The Kiwibuild programme and falling immigration numbers were “pre-conditions” that had been fulfilled, said Mr Peters.

“This is about people, not about politics and controversy”, he said. It was an issue the Cabinet was “always on track to work through”, said Ms Ardern.

But National Party leader Simon Bridges said Mr Peters must have wrangled something out of his coalition partner for today’s announcement to happen.

“We’ll see the size of the secret deal in due course, whether it is big changes in the industrial law area or whether it’s a billion dollars for one of his pet projects, you can be sure he has got something for this deal.”

New Zealand also has a Refugee Family Support category, which means refugees or “protected persons” with residence can sponsor a family member, and that person’s partner and dependent children for New Zealand residence.

Each year there are 300 places available, and Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway said those numbers would rise “proportionately” with the increase in the actual quota.

The increase will not take place immediately, but from July 2020. The increase is 500 more than the current quota of 1000.