Action urged over refugee issues

The Government needs to step in over refugee resettlement in New Zealand, with providers ‘‘to some extent, floundering’’, says Green MP Golriz Ghahraman.

Numerous concerns have been raised over the past year, including new providers being set up ‘‘to fail’’, ‘‘exceptional levels’’ of pressure on providers in Auckland, Hamilton and Christchurch and concerns that families are facing financial hardship.

Some of those recently resettled in New Zealand say they went days alone with no warm blankets, no internet or television, while another family’s home had no curtains, the carpet was dirty, and there were exposed powerpoints and mould in the shower.

Ghahraman said she was not surprised issues were still happening.

The Red Cross lost contracts to resettle refugees in Auckland, Hamilton and Christchurch last year.

Ghahraman said providers were, to some extent, ‘‘floundering and the Government does need to step in’’.

She put much of the blame down to resource allocation by Government.

‘‘What isn’t good enough is setting up very new communitybased providers without the experience and resource of the Red Cross and giving them the same or less resource,’’ she said.

However, Immigration NZ (INZ) said it was a misconception funding was cut.

Andrew Lockhart, acting general manager of refugee and migrant services, said: ‘‘The funding available for settlement services did not change and has since increased by 7.5% to meet cost pressures experienced by all contracted providers.’’

Ghahraman said it was really unclear whether the resource allocation had been received by those on the ground.

‘‘What it does mean is that charities have to pick up the slack and that’s not quite good enough because they already have so much to deal with,’’ she said.

‘‘This is a population base with already quite high needs. They’ve experienced some very recent trauma. They’re also a population that actually overachieves very quickly . . . so it’s worth supporting refugees.’’

Asked if he was concerned about the recent issues raised, Immigration Minister Michael Wood said that was not ‘‘specific information which has come to my attention’’.

But Wood said he had always been open to receiving feedback. ‘‘As you’re aware in the past, when that has come through, we’ve made sure that we’ve gone in there and tried to address any issue.’’

He acknowledged that there were concerns at the time that contracts were changed over. ‘‘We got on top of those. A lot of work was put in.’’

The Government was reviewing the refugee resettlement strategy to ensure it remained fit for purpose.

‘‘It’s really important that when we do resettle our refugee communities, that there’s really good support that’s available for them,’’ Wood said. ‘‘It’s why we’re refreshing the strategy.’’