Covid adds to dangers faced by refugees
RED Cross general manager for migration, Rachel O’Connor, says refugees face an average of 18 years in a camp and 99.5 percent of those in camps will never make it to another country.
‘‘They will either have to create a life in the country where they have sought asylum, or they will eventually have to go home one day and hope conditions have changed.’’
The wait after being interviewed by immigration staff before arriving in New Zealand is two years on average.
‘‘When people are living in such desperate situations, two years is a really long time already, and then to feel like you’ve almost made it to safety and have it put on hold and no definite date can be really scary.’’
‘‘They are trying to find food, they are trying to get access to healthcare, they are trying to protect their families, all of that is just incredibly dangerous living sometimes in the midst of a conflict zone. So we can only imagine how difficult it is now with Covid added.’’
O’Connor says it is positive the Government has restarted the quota – a move many others had not taken.
She says the Red Cross wants to see the Government treat humanitarian migrants in the same way as economic migrants, and receive a quota of the arrival intake.
Economic migrants are currently allotted 10 per cent of managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) places. O’Connor says even a 1 per cent allocation for humanitarian cases will save lives.