By Bernadette Basagre and Geraden Cann
Friday February 5, 2021
It took Dahir Abdirahman a decade to reach New Zealand after fleeing violence in Somalia and he was one of the last allowed in as Covid-19 shut the border. He hopes his story will inspire the Government to renew efforts to bring in more refugees.MONIQUE FORD/STUFF
Refugee families will start arriving in New Zealand this month as the Government’s quota programme resumes.
The programme was put on hold due to Covid-19 in March, with the exception of a small number of priority emergency cases.
Groups of between 35 and 70 people will be brought in from February with a total of 210 people expected to arrive by the end of June.
Immigration New Zealand (INZ) said it had been working on plans to resume refugee resettlement when international travel and transit routes became available.The arrivals will all complete a 14-day stay in managed isolation facilities.
Despite the programme resuming, INZ said the number of refugees arriving in the country would not meet its initial quota of 1500.
Red Cross general manager of migration Rachel O’Connor said she was “incredibly pleased” by the news, but said the Government still needed to fulfil the initial quota as there are over 1200 refugees due to come.
“Since March 2020, when New Zealand borders closed, until today, 1,217 people due to come here haven’t arrived, so we have a lot of catching up to do.”
Abdirahman has been separated from his wife since 2014 during his flight from Somalia to Indonesia.
The 34-year-old, who has been living with a dislocated hip since he was 11 years old, is waiting for his wife to arrive in New Zealand before he receives corrective surgery because she would help with recovery.
After completing their managed isolation stay, the groups will be transferred to Te Āhuru Mōwai o Aotearoa, Māngere Refugee Resettlement Centre, before moving to planned settlement locations across New Zealand.