Allied forces continue to airlift Afghan refugees out of Kabul in the thousands after the Taliban seized power this month. Is New Zealand doing its share to make a new home for these and other refugees? National Correspondent Lucy Craymer reports.

In the last financial year, New Zealand took in just 211​ refugees.

It’s a low total by normal standards, but its small size is further emphasised by the fact that the Government had taken the much-heralded decision to increase the country’s annual refugee quota to 1500 from July 1, 2020.​ New Zealand had also failed to meet its refugee target of 1000 in the prior year.​

The reason is not surprising: Covid-19.

But in the wake of Afghanistan falling to the Taliban this month, and with hundreds of thousands more people now displaced, the Government has made no public offers of an emergency intake of refugees, either now or in the future when Covid-19 is no longer the issue it presently is. In fact, New Zealand is again expected to bring in significantly fewer refugees this financial year than the Government has publicly committed to.

Non-governmental organisations are calling for more to be done for refugees globally. At the very least they want New Zealand to commit to making up the shortfall in numbers of refugees taken in when borders reopen and international travel becomes easier.

“We would certainly hope that efforts would be made to catch up on some of those numbers that were missed,” says Rachel O'Connor, General Manager Migration at the New Zealand Red Cross​. The call to do more is echoed by New Zealand managers at World Vision International​ and Amnesty International.​

But Immigration New Zealand (INZ) says quota places not filled in one financial year are not transferred to the next.

What is the current situation?

Part of the drop in the 2019-20 year was due to the United Nations refugee resettlement programme being suspended from March until June last year. However, that programme is back up and running and the Government is still forecasting that the country will welcome fewer than 1500 refugees in the year ending on June 30, 2022. INZ says to date, 198 refugees have arrived.​

While space in managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities is one of the biggest challenges to bringing refugees in, O’Connor​ says fewer international flights and the increased restrictions on transiting countries are also making it logistically much more difficult.

Refugees who had expected to come to New Zealand before the pandemic and are still waiting are being prioritised, she says. The New Zealand Red Cross is the primary provider of community refugee settlement programmes in 11 locations here.

The significant reduction in the number of refugees coming in adds to the fact that New Zealand’s annual intake of refugees is already below those of countries it tends to measure itself against. In the 2020 calendar year, based on the latest data available from the United Nations, New Zealand took in fewer refugees per capita than both Canada and Australia. Prior to the pandemic, New Zealand’s per capita quota looked even worse.

“Per capita, it's pretty pathetic,” says Meg de Ronde,​ executive director of Amnesty International Aotearoa New Zealand.​ She partly blames how far the country is from the rest of the world for giving people a sense that they have time to figure out policy rather than just acting.

We’re better than we were

The Government announced plans in 2018 to increase the country’s quota ​ to 1500 from 1000, starting from July 2020, after increases to services and infrastructure, such as the rebuild of the Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre, had been completed. The quota had been lifted from 750 in 2018. The shift came after a number of years of campaigning. According to some campaigners, the shift does little more than reflect the growth in the country’s population over 30 years.

“New Zealanders think of ourselves as caring, compassionate, doing our bit in the world, so there is really a great opportunity for New Zealand to resettle more refugees and allow people to restart their lives,” says Grant Bayldon, ​chief executive of World Vision New Zealand.​

He adds that for many refugees, such as those he met near the Syrian border, their first choice would be to return home, but for most that isn’t an option because it’s just too dangerous.

Along with the 1500 refugees New Zealand nominally takes​, the country also takes in a further 300 ​refugees who already have family settled here. There are also additional requests for asylum for people already in the country. The Government has previously increased the number of refugees above the quota to respond to specific situations, such as the crisis in Syria, or to help the refugees rescued by the Norwegian cargo ship MV Tampa in 2001.

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What is happening with those in Afghanistan?

However, New Zealand has thus far not followed other close allies in offering more places for those fleeing Afghanistan, outside those it feels it has direct responsibility for. Canada announced it would take an extra 20,000 refugees, with a focus on those in marginalised groups such as the LGBTQI community, women leaders and human rights activists. The United Kingdom has also offered to resettle up to 20,000 Afghans, and hopes to take in 5000 in the first year. The United States is reported to be looking to offer as many as 50,000 people refuge under a humanitarian parole programme.

New Zealand is currently accepting those who worked directly or alongside our agencies, helped with the government inquiry into allegations related to Operation Burnham, or where there are reasonable grounds to believe they are at risk because of their association with New Zealand.

However, those trying to get friends or former colleagues visas to come to New Zealand are worried that the process is too slow. INZ says it continues to work hard to facilitate visas for the Afghan nationals who meet the criteria to be part of the humanitarian mission and to help screen them prior to arrival.

The number eligible for evacuation has grown from some 50 people to more than 250 in a week, as INZ expedites visa applications for family members.

De Ronde says given how hard it is for people to get out of Afghanistan at the moment, it has to be hoped that people will continue to care about the situation and continue to help those who are able to flee down the track.

“We have to recognise that we’re in this for the long haul,” she says.

Former Labour MP and Minister of Ethnic Affairs Chris Carter, ​who ran United Nations Development Programme projects in Afghanistan for four years, has written around 40 letters for staff he worked with during that time to help them get visas to move to Canada.

He says while he is pleased the Government has increased the quota to 1500, he’d like to see a one-off quota introduced to aid those who will be targeted, such as young women in politics or academia in Afghanistan.

There is a whole group of amazing young women “who are very much at risk now”, he says. “It would be really good if we could take some of them to New Zealand to find safety and to have personal and professional fulfilment.”

Take away the issues with a lack of MIQ rooms and challenging logistics and New Zealand does have the resources to take in people. The programme itself is recognised as being very successful – it prioritises women and children under 18 and has programmes in place to help with the resettlement process.

There has been a small trial of community-sponsored refugees. The programme – similar to one in Canada – allowed a community group to sponsor a refugee or a family, with the group then helping the new arrivals settle into the community, organising things like enrolling kids at school and helping refugees find a house. This pilot has been extended for three years from July 2021.

But what about New Zealanders?

New Zealand’s ongoing housing shortage is raised as a concern whenever the issue of bringing in more people comes up. The Government has tried to counter this by introducing a plan to encourage more refugees to settle in smaller towns, such as Levin and Blenheim.

Elizabeth Young,​ a refugee advocate, says there is a popular argument that we can’t even look after our own people so we shouldn’t be taking in more refugees.

“I always say to people: it’s not a competition, we can actually help both,” says Young, who is the chairperson of the Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Working Group at the Asia Pacific Refugee Rights Network.