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Call for emergency refugee intake in NZ

Author
Newstalk ZB staff,
Publish Date
Wed, 2 Sep 2015, 1:15PM
Record numbers of migrants gather in front of Keleti station in Budapest, Hungary.
Record numbers of migrants gather in front of Keleti station in Budapest, Hungary.

Call for emergency refugee intake in NZ

Author
Newstalk ZB staff,
Publish Date
Wed, 2 Sep 2015, 1:15PM

As well upping our refugee quota, Labour wants to see an emergency refugee intake given the scale of the humanitarian crisis in Europe.

Pressure is mounting on the Government to increase the quota from 750, including from support parties ACT and United Future.

MP David Shearer said he wants to see the 750 figure increased to one thousand, and that there should be an emergency intake.

He said New Zealand took on around 300 Tampa refugees in the early 2000s and in 1999 took in about 400 people from Kosovo in an emergency situation.

Mr Shearer thinks that would be an appropriate number to show New Zealand is prepared to help.

MORE: Migrants in Hungary dreaming of Germany

David Seymour thinks the quota it should be over 1000. He said we're lucky to be protected by large oceans, which gives us a choice about who comes over the border.

"With that comes a requirement that we have some principles, and I believe we should be pegging the number of refugees we take to our population, or perhaps our GDP, our ability to support people."

Denise Roche is calling for the quota to be doubled.

"We're spending how much? $26 million on a flag debate. We've spent $60 million or something to send people to war. We could be doing much more to make a huge difference to people's lives."

United Future leader Peter Dunne believes we should take in a special one-off allocation of 250 people. He said once that's done, our quota should increase from 750 to at least 1000.

"We haven't touched the quota since 1987, and yet our overall population's gone up well over 48 percent in that time."

The Red Cross also believes New Zealand needs to step up and increase its refugee quota. 

Red Cross development manager Rachel O'Connor said New Zealand has a world class refugee resettlement programme.

"If we increase the number of the refugee quota, that has to then be matched by and increase in the resource as well."

 

International calls urge New Zealand to 'share the burden'

The calls come as the UN refugee agency is backing German chancellor Angela Merkel's calls for a united approach to the European crisis.

Nearly 4000 migrants have arrived in the Austrian capital Vienna, most heading for Germany.

There's also been chaos at the main railway station in the Hungarian capital of Budapest.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman Adrian Edwards reports it's an international burden needing a global solution.

"The number of people forcibly displaced globally, 60 million, is equivalent to the size of Spain," he said.

"It's a very large number of people. What we're seeing is very much part of a wider tragedy."

The UN refugee agency said the situation in Europe could be addressed by EU countries taking 10,000 migrants each.

Adrian Edwards said every government, including New Zealand, needs to share the burden and think beyond their own domestic concerns.

"We have individual actions by one country, primarily focused on its own domestic concerns. Those really aren't making inroads into dealing with the global problem."

Meanwhile European leaders say the continent must deal with migrants on the ground, but the world must help tackle the problems that sent them fleeing their homelands.

European Parliament vice-president, Mairead McGuinness reports they have to look at the solutions to the problem as much as the reactions to it.

"I think that is a global challenge that shouldn't just be left with the European Union," she said.

"There's a role for indeed players like New Zealand, Australia, America. The Arab countries themselves have got be brought to the table."

Ms McGuinness reports someone is making big money trafficking people, sometimes to their deaths.

"We have to organise our intelligence and our policing, to get these people and put them where they should be, which is out of harm's way," she said.

"[We need to] stop this lucrative trade in human beings."

She said this is a global issue about political instability, dictatorship and lack of democracy.

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