Call for extension of refugee help
Many refugees in New Zealand are falling through the cracks, say refugee advocates who are pushing for the Government to be inclusive of all new arrivals.
The Government is reviewing the New Zealand Refugee Resettlement Strategy and the Migrant Strategy before it presents recommendations to the Cabinet next year.
Last year, refugee advocates formed the Refugee Alliance, demanding a review of the strategy that was approved in 2012.
The group advocated for all refugees in Aotearoa to be covered by the strategy and on November 8 submitted an open letter to Immigration Minister Michael Wood.
As it currently stands, only quota refugees – those who have been selected offshore and resettled in Aotearoa under the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) system – are covered by the strategy.
Other people arriving in New Zealand face more barriers to accessing support.
This group includes asylum seekers who apply for refugee status from within Aotearoa and, once accepted, become convention refugees.
In the letter, the Refugee Alliance said quota refugees received help with resettlement to connect with healthcare, edu
cation, accommodation and employment services, while refugees arriving under the family reunification and convention categories, for example, were excluded.
‘‘These groups are often invisible; they fall through the cracks,’’ the letter said.
‘‘Their access to those same support services is severely limited and, in the case of convention refugees, they are denied even the most basic of needs, such as food grants and shelter, as their applications are processed.’’
Currently 1500 quota refugees are accepted into the country
each year while, on average, there are 394 claims for asylumseeker status, with about 178 successful.
So far this year 872 people have arrived under the UNHCR system, said Fiona Whiteridge, the general manager of refugee and migrant services at Immigration New Zealand.
Refugees and asylum seekers were able to access public healthcare, mental health support and education, she said.
But despite what was said on paper, former refugee Bernard Sama, the chairperson of the
Asylum Seekers Support Trust and a PhD student at the University of Auckland, had personal experience of support barriers.
Sama arrived in New Zealand in 2006 as an asylum seeker, fleeing political persecution in Cameroon as an Anglophone rights activist.
He spent time living with a Congolese refugee community in Hamilton while he was turned away from housing support.
‘‘Finally I just had to figure out that is what the system is ... I could feel the distinction between myself and quota refugees. The best thing was to find other ways to survive,’’ he said.
Although he was eventually able to begin his studies in 2012 and find private accommodation, he had, through his work at the Asylum Seekers Support Trust, witnessed others since struggle.
People arriving as asylum seekers or refugees were already in a vulnerable position, he said, and having to navigate a system with little support was ‘‘in a way, retraumatising’’.
He had watched people’s mental and physical health deteriorate. Some resorted to begging on the streets.
In 2012, the Cabinet agreed that proposals to include other refugee categories should be referred to the Cabinet once work was under way.
‘‘That hasn’t happened for over 10 years,’’ Sama said.
‘‘And now the strategy is up for review, we think it is a good time to do that.’’
Sama and Professor Jay Marlowe of the University of Auckland were co-writers of a report called Safe Start and Fair Future, which called for all refugees to be treated equally.
Marlowe said there was no difference between the two groups, other than how they arrived in the country.
As part of the review, Immigration NZ said it was considering other refugee categories such as convention refugees.
Belong Aotearoa chief executive Rochana Sheward said the Refugee Alliance wanted to make sure the strategy was more equitable and to ensure the group members’ voices as a collective were heard.