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Small, delayed refugee quota increase deeply disappointing
Small, delayed refugee quota increase deeply disappointing
Members of community group
ActionStation say the Government’s decision not to
increase New Zealand’s refugee quota for two years is
deeply disappointing.
Prime Minister John Key and
Minister for Immigration Michael Woodhouse today announced
they would not increase New Zealand’s annual refugee quota
until 2018, and then only by 250 people per year. The number
of refugees and people seeking asylum worldwide has, for the
first time in the post-World War II era, recently exceeded
50 million people.
“That’s 50 million men,
women and children who have had their homes and lives stolen
by war,” says Laura O’Connell Rapira, Campaign Director
at ActionStation, “and our Government’s response is to
help just 250 more people in two years time. By way of
comparison, Australia will grow their refugee intake from
13,500 to 18,750 by 2018. New Zealand from 750 to 1,000.
Today the Government has done the least they think they can
get away with, and many New Zealanders will be
disappointed.”
This Wednesday at 1.30pm
ActionStation members will join members of Amnesty
International, Avaaz, Doing Our Bit and other community
organisations at gatherings in Wellington, Auckland and
Dunedin to show solidarity for the millions of refugees who
continue to wait to be resettled in a safe country like New
Zealand and to express their disappointment in the
Government’s decision.
“This is the first
increase to New Zealand’s refugee quota in 29 years and as
such it is a step in the right direction,” says
ActionStation spokesperson Marianne Elliott, “but it so
much less than we could do, based on the advice of the very
organisations who are responsible for resettlement of
refugees in New Zealand. It is also still much less than our
fair share of the global response to what the United Nations
has called the ‘worst humanitarian crisis of the century.
Today is a shameful day for New Zealand’s track record as
a good global
citizen.”
ENDS
ActionStation
Our mission is to tautoko (support) and whakamana (uplift) everyday New Zealanders to act together in powerful and coordinated ways to create what we cannot achieve on our own: a society, economy and democracy that serves all of us - everyday people and Papatūānuku, the planet we love.
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