NZ has taken ‘giant step backwards’ in refugee resettlement – National

New Zealand has taken “a giant step backwards” in its refugee resettlement services, says National’s immigration spokesperson Erica Stanford, while the Race Relations Commissioner is meeting face-to-face with refugee families after new concerns about the level of care provided.

Green MP Golriz Ghahraman​ on Wednesday urged the Government to step in, saying some providers were, to some extent, “floundering”.

It comes after some of those recently resettled in New Zealand say they went days alone with no warm blankets, no curtains, dirty carpet was dirty, and exposed powerpoints.

Immigration Minister Michael Wood has asked officials to give him an update in the coming days of the situation.

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Stanford said New Zealand has a “duty of care” to refugee arrivals.

“We’ve always prided ourselves of being a country that resettles refugees to a pretty high standard.”

She said while there was always room for improvement, New Zealand’s current situation was that refugee resettlement had taken “a giant step backwards”.

“Everywhere I go I am hearing exactly the same stories.”

Stanford was concerned about the situation in Auckland and for those who had just arrived in New Zealand.

“The more and more I talk to different agencies, they all have the same comments and that is really concerning because I know a lot of these families won’t speak up.”

Asked for her response to Immigration New Zealand’s (INZ) recent review into providers that found that in the first three months, all six providers were meeting, “if not exceeding”, contractual standards, Stanford said from the people she had spoken to, “they certainly haven’t had their expectations met”.

Meng Foon will be meeting with refugee families in light of the resettlement concerns.

Foon said he would organise a meeting with families “to get a visibility on how they have resettled and the issues that are facing them”.

“I want to see exactly what they’re talking about so I can better advocate for them.”

The problems were all over New Zealand, but smaller rural areas seemed to be coping better, he said.

Issues he was aware of included homes being too far from and harder for new families to access amenities, homes not up to the healthy homes standards, and families needing better support learning to use public transport.

“I think the new providers are still learning these needs.”

Once he met face-to-face with resettled families, he would be taking further the resettlement issues that he was already “seriously considering”.

Wood said he had asked officials to give him an update in the coming days.

If he was confident the information INZ was providing was actually what was happening on the ground, Wood said, “yes”.

“I have confidence that officials send me through good information. And I get that through direct contacts as well.”

Numerous concerns have been raised over the past year, including new providers being set up “to fail”, “exceptional levels” of pressure on providers in Auckland, Hamilton and Christchurch and concerns that families are facing financial hardship.

Fiona Whiteridge, INZ’s general manager of refugee and migrant services, said last week that while there had been “a couple of teething problems, we’ve worked really, really hard, as have the settlement providers… Everybody wants this to work really well and to be really successful”.