Cr Aaron Hawkins, a Green Party city councillor, yesterday called for a doubling of New Zealand’s present refugee quota, to 1500 per year. The order, which temporarily banned approved refugees, also blocked Syrian refugees indefinitely and placed a 90-day freeze on new arrivals from Iraq, Syria, Iran, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia. Dunedin last year became New Zealand’s newest centre for refugee resettlement after being selected in 2015 to host up to 150 Syrian refugees a year. Dunedin’s selection came as the Government approved an emergency intake of 750 Syrian refugees, spread over three years, on top of an annual quota of 750 a year, a figure unchanged since its introduction in 1976. A spokeswoman for Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse, a Dunedin-based list MP, would only say "a lot has happened" over the weekend, but the Government’s plan to raise the refugee quota to 1000 from next year remained unchanged.

Source: Otago Daily Times January 29, 2017 17:07 UTC