‘Racist’ refugee policy decision eyed
The Government has been urged to remove a ‘‘racist refugee policy’’ that discriminates against people from Africa and the Middle East.
In 2009, the National Government introduced a family link policy requiring refugees from these regions to have an existing link to New Zealand in order for them to be eligible to resettle.
Immigration Minister Iain Lees-galloway has confirmed that policy was discriminatory, adding that a decision on it was imminent.
Somali refugee Guled Mire, who resettled in New Zealand about 22 years ago with his mother and eight siblings, made his plea to the education and workforce select committee yesterday, saying there was no valid justification for it.
There was no place for such a policy in the current day and age, he said. ‘‘This was a policy designed intentionally to keep people like me out.
‘‘We are just asking for this unnecessary racist restriction to be removed immediately.’’
If the same restrictions had been in place when Mire came to New Zealand, he would not be here today, he said.
Refugees knew there were ‘‘much wider issues at play’’, he said. The Government is currently reviewing the policy and is understood to have been at loggerheads with NZ First, holding up any movement on the issue.
Lees-galloway said it was currently before Cabinet and a decision would be out ‘‘reasonably soon’’. When asked if he thought the policy was discriminatory, he said: ‘‘It currently treats one group of people different from others.’’
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said it was ‘‘something that needs to be looked at’’.
World Vision Pacific advocacy leader Carsten Bockemuehl told the committee the restrictions undermined the human character of New Zealand’s refugee quota.
He also highlighted the 14 per cent annual cap on refugees from these regions and the significant decrease in numbers coming into New Zealand.
‘‘Given that two-thirds of the world’s refugees are currently in Africa and the Middle East, we believe it should be higher.’’