Kiwis come out in support of more refugees
80% of New Zealanders surveyed this week by campaigning organisation ActionStation supported an immediate emergency
intake of refugees from Syria, and an increase in the ongoing refugee quota.
“A significant majority of the people who responded to our survey felt that increasing our refugee quota would be a
compassionate and constructive way for New Zealand to do our bit in response to the war in Iraq and Syria,” said
ActionStation Director Marianne Elliott
Yesterday ActionStation teamed up with advocacy group Doing Our Bit to launch a campaign calling on the government to
create an immediate intake of 100 refugees from Syria, and to work towards doubling the ongoing refugee quota. Hundreds
of New Zealanders have already come out in support of the petition.
The Prime Minister yesterday told reporters that if we took more refugees it would be more difficult to make sure they
got the support they need.
“This was one of the reasons offered by the minority of our members who did not support the petition,” said Elliott,
“and our members were clear that any increase in the number of refugees taken into New Zealand would require an increase
in the associated funding to support resettlement.”
The core budget for providing support and resettlement services to the 750 quota refugees currently taken in by New
Zealand each year is $9 million, so the funds needed to double the intake would be less than the cost of the proposed
flag redesign process. The immediate cost of providing safe haven to 100 of the most vulnerable of the 4 millions Syrian
refugees would be considerably less. There are also long term costs in terms of housing, education and health care, but
these are not sunk costs: They go towards the creation of new citizens who also pay taxes and contribute to society.
“The equivalent of the entire population of New Zealand has been forced to flee their home due to violence in Syria in
the past four years,” says ActionStation Director Marianne Elliott, “and our members have told us that providing a safe
refuge to 100 of the most vulnerable of those people is a more urgent and important use for public funds than a redesign
of the flag.”
New Zealand's refugee quota has not increased in 28 years. In that time our population has grown by 39% (or 1.3 million
people). The United Nations ranks New Zealand at 87th in the world for hosting refugees per capita. When adjusted for
our relative wealth we rank at 113th in the world. Even Australia accepts over three times more refugees per capita than
New Zealand.
If we doubled our quota we would still only be ranked as 78th in the world for hosting per capita and would sit between
Ghana (77th) and Bulgaria (currently 78th).
“We would not be world leaders,” said Doing Our Bit founder Murdoch Stephens, “but we would be much closer to doing our
fair share. In recent weeks the Prime Minister told New Zealanders that our country had to 'do our bit' in the
international effort to defeat ISIS, but we are not doing our bit when it comes to offering refuge and support to people
forced by violence to flee their homes.”
ENDS