The Green Party welcomes the announcement by Immigration New Zealand to re-start the refugee resettlement programme.
Green Party spokesperson for Refugees Golriz Ghahraman says the move is the right thing to do.
“What COVID-19 has taught us is that we must take care of all of us, and we must, if we are going to get through this.
That includes refugees who have been displaced by persecution and war, and are now languishing in extremely unsafe
conditions in the global pandemic.
“As part of the Green Party’s role in the Covid-19 response last term, we pushed hard to prioritise humanitarian
categories for the purpose of entry into New Zealand, rather than commercial interests. We have continued to make this
clear to Labour this term.
“We are delighted to see the refugee resettlement programme starting again, even in a limited way. We will continue to
push the Government to lift the quota on resettling refugees and reuniting migrant families separated as a result of
border closures.
“Being a responsible global citizen means looking after everyone to overcome the challenges we all face. We can’t afford
to let our most marginalised suffer the worst of this pandemic.”