News

Press Release 08 July, 2010
For Immediate Release

The Refugee Council of New Zealand is opposed to the announced intention of the New Zealand Government to participate in the Australian plan to hold asylum seekers and boat people in regional detention centres in East Timor.

RCNZ believes that New Zealand should take its own independent course in a policy based on humanitarian principles, and not follow the present direction of the Australian government. Australia has quite different asylum issues which are presently bound up in domestic politics related to their own upcoming elections.

There is scepticism regarding the statement made by the Prime Minister that remote New Zealand could be somehow be at risk for encountering a possible flood of boat people across the formidable Tasman Sea. Such a prospect seems highly unlikely. Even if a boat actually did ever reach our shores, then the East Timor solution would not be the best option.

We are also concerned about the appalling conditions in existing Australian asylum detention centres such as Christmas Island and believe that no New Zealand taxpayer funding should be applied to supporting a regional ‘transitional’ camp in East Timor. The so-called ‘Pacific Solution’ was eventually proven to be a failure, and the East Timor option is most likely to do so as well, and to have very limited actual deterrent value.

Under international law, any signatory to the UN Convention must receive and give due process under natural justice to all asylum claimants seeking refuge from persecution, war or torture. This must take place on a country’s own soil if an asylum seeker arrives in territorial waters. It is illegal and unethical to place asylum seekers in detention of a third party country.

RCNZ also is also concerned about the detrimental and damaging effects of long term detention on women and children particularly. Hard evidence regarding the exact nature and extent of the effects of detention is included in the enclosed attachment.

RCNZ is also very concerned about the reported statement of the Prime Minister that New Zealand may possibly accept a proportion of the boat people from Australia but apply that number within the small existing United Nations quota of 750. Such an ill-considered decision would predictably have quite unforeseen, damaging and unfair consequences for the high protection UN Quota Refugees who had been selected from the queue and welcomed for resettlement. It would also have the effect of most unfairly displacing family reunifications for former refugees who are now settled New Zealand citizens and who arrived legally as welcomed settlers. STOP

Contact:
Dr N Rasalingham,
President Refugee Council of New Zealand
09-528-0895
027 293 6623

Refugee Council of New Zealand Meets With Australian
Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Migration

Like many countries, Australia is keen to ensure that skilled migrants entering the country can contribute positively to the country's economy.

Under the annual committee exchange programme between the New Zealand and Australian Parliaments, a delegation of the Australian Parliamentary Joint Standing Committee on Migration visited New Zealand from 27 to 31 August 2006, to examine New Zealand's skilled migration programme and also its overseas skills recognition process.

The delegation spent part of its first day in Auckland where, accompanied by Hon Mark Gosche, it visited the following:

• The Refugee Status Appeals Authority, Albert Street, Auckland Central
• The Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre, Manger, South Auckland
• Border Control Operations, Auckland International Airport.

At lunch, the delegation met with representatives of the Refugee Council: Dr Rasalingam, President; Heval Hylan, Secretary; Dinesh Tailor, Treasurer; Roger Brookes, Community Liaison, gaining insight into how New Zealand's applied immigration policy currently affects members of migrant and refugee communities.

The delegation leader, Don Randall MP, later wrote to the Refugee Council, expressing thanks for having met our representatives and gaining useful information from them.

The delegation spent the next three days in Wellington on a busy schedule which included:

• Meeting with the Speaker of the House of Representatives
• Visiting Immigration New Zealand - discussions with senior staff
• Observing Parliament in session, followed by a tour of Parliament
• Meeting with Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith, National Party Spokesperson for Immigration
• Meeting with members of the Federation of New Zealand Ethnic Councils
• Dining with the Australian High Commissioner to New Zealand
• Visiting the Residence Review Board
• Visiting Te Papa
• Meeting with Hon David Benson-Pope, Minister of Social Development and Employment
• Meeting Keith Locke, Green Party Spokesperson on Immigration, Ethnic Affairs and Pasifika
• Meeting with RMS - Refugee and Migrant Resettlement Service
• Meeting with Hon Winstone Peters, Minister of Foreign Affairs
• Meeting with Hon David Cunliffe, Minister of Immigration
• Attending session of Select Committee for Foreign Affairs, Defence & Trade
• Attending session of Select Committee for Transport & Industrial Relations.

The Refugee Council of New Zealand is appreciative of having contributed to the delegation's committee exchange programme, and ultimately to the resulting 325-page report presented to the Australian Parliament on 11 September 2006.

Visiting Members of the Joint Standing Committee on Migration 2006:

• Mr Don Randall MP, Chair Federal Member for Canning (Western Australia), Liberal Party of Australia
• Senator Linda Kirk, Deputy Chair Senator for South Australia, Australian Labour Party
• Senator Andrew Bartlett, Senator for Queensland, Australian Democrats
• Mr Laurie Ferguson MP, Member for Reid (New South Wales), Australian Labour Party
• The Hon Dr Carmen Lawrence MP, Member for Freemantle (Western Australia), Australian Labour Party
• Senator Stephen Parry, Senator for Tasmania Liberal Party of Australia
• Accompanying Official - Dr Kate Sullivan Inquiry Secretary, Joint Standing Committee on Migration