10 November 2015

New Zealand’s missed opportunity to show leadership on refugee and asylum seeker rights

Following Australia’s human rights review which took place in Geneva overnight, Amnesty International has expressed deep disappointment that the New Zealand government failed to raise Australia’s inhumane policies around refugees and asylum seekers.

“This was a missed opportunity for New Zealand to show leadership and to take a vital step towards putting effective protection mechanisms in place for refugees and asylum seekers in the region,” said Meg de Ronde, Campaigns Director at Amnesty International New Zealand.

During their session, Australia defended its policy of turning boats carrying asylum seekers back saying they saved lives at sea and that asylum seekers were ‘safely removed’ from Australia’s sea borders. However, these statements are tragically untrue. Amnesty International’s recent report, Deadly Journeys, shows that boats of refugees are still making dangerous journeys in our region.

“What Australia needs is a fair and efficient system to assess people who seek refuge and provides them protection and with so many other countries voicing concern, it is disappointing that New Zealand wasn’t one of the countries to call them out on this issue,” said de Ronde.

However, it was encouraging to see that New Zealand did raise the issue of indigenous rights and the need for Australia to continue to address inequalities in the areas of health, housing, education and employment that disproportionately affect indigenous people and other minority groups.

She continued that it was “encouraging that New Zealand commended Australia’s signing of the Optional Protocol for the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT) as the Protocol covers the monitoring of detention centres. With so many recent allegations of abuses in youth detention and detention centres we would like to see Australia ratify and implement OPCAT without delay”.

ENDS

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