Refugee advocates say the Government's forgetting its humanitarian obligations when granting border exemptions.
More than 4000 non-Kiwis have been allowed into the country since the beginning of the year – including entertainers and sportspeople.
All while over 1000 refugees, almost half of which are children, remain stuck in limbo.
It was a close call for one Somali family now living in Hamilton; Mohammed Ali Buwe and Faduma Hassan arrived here with their young son on March 12 last year.
Days later the borders closed, and the global resettlement of refugees was suspended. There's been no commitment to fully reopening our quota since.
Faduma Hassan says it was a “dream come true” to come to New Zealand.
She’d left Somalia in 2012, over fears for her safety as a young girl growing up in a nation with a poor record of human’s rights – particularly towards women.
She spent the next eight years in Malaysia, where she met Mohammed and where their son was born.
“I needed to [find a way] to survive. I didn’t have a mother, or a brother, or a father to look after me. [but] I was the first-born of my family, so I had to get out, I had to make a life for ourselves.”
The conflict in Somalia continues to create a humanitarian crisis that’s displaced around 2.6 million within its borders.
Talking to 1 NEWS in Hamilton, Mohammed reflects on how his new life here is giving his family a rare chance to start over.
“You feel lucky, when you see what you have gone through and you know there are people back there waiting.”
A privilege that Faduma Hassan says also comes with a sense of guilt.
“For the refugees back there, the borders are closed. The Covid is there, there are no jobs. I got scared. I thought, do I deserve to be here?”
Advocates are calling on the Government to do more to help those refugees who have been left stranded.
This year New Zealand’s refugee quota was supposed to be increased to 1500 - but only 50 have arrived in the country in the current quota period.
Around 200 are expected to arrive by June; a figure far short of the full quota, but with no capability of backfilling there's fear refugees will be waiting longer.
Meanwhile, more than 4000 border exemptions have been granted to non-Kiwi citizens and residents in the first ten weeks of this year.
Including 454 in the 'other critical worker' category, a category which includes entertainers and sports people.
Green MP Golriz Ghahraman believes the Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre could be adapted and used as an isolation facility to help bring in more refugees.
“It needs to have some modification, but the buildings are there, the funding is set aside for any resettlement group to be there for six weeks,” she says.
However, Immigration New Zealand says its assessment late last year suggested re-purposing the centre would not be “efficient”.
As the Green Party spokeswoman for refugees, Ghahraman's promising to take the issue up with the immigration minister shortly.
Red Cross New Zealand general manager of migrations, Rachel O’Connor says in managing the border it is important not to forget those most in need.
“We can welcome sports’ teams and entertainers,” she says. We just have to make sure that we don’t forget to welcome people who desperately need our help.”
Immigration NZ says plans are in place to bring in refugees, safe travel and transit routes permitting, but didn’t elaborate on numbers.
Having just made it here, there’s just one thing Mohammed Ali Buwe and Faduma Hassan want – to be reunited with the rest of their family.
Their worries about their family in Somalia giving them restless nights.
“Now there is a pandemic, there is fear of another civil war,” he says. “They were used to working for their daily bread, but because of the lockdown they can’t, this puts the responsibility all on us.”
They hope to one day bring them here, so their only child can meet his grandparents.
“You have that dream and wish your child could be on their grandparents lap,” Mohammed says.
Fulfilling that dream will be challenging as while the family reunification visa quota has been increased to 600 a year; it’s been put on hold as a result of Covid.
As they wait, the couple are choosing to look to the future, focusing on their studies, raising their boy and giving back to the country that’s given them fresh start.
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