6570 (2024). Ricardo Menéndez March to the Minister of Immigration

6570 (2024). Ricardo Menéndez March to the Minister of Immigration: Further to WPQ 4805 (2024), why has the annual arrival of refugees from Palestine fallen from 36 in 2019/20 to less than 5 refugees in each of the last four financial years?

Hon Erica Stanford: The Government aims to ensure that the quota remains targeted to refugees in greatest need of resettlement as identified by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), while balancing this with New Zealand’s capacity to provide good settlement outcomes to those accepted under the programme. For an individual to qualify for resettlement under New Zealand’s Refugee Quota Programme, they must have legal recognition as a refugee from the UNHCR and their case must be referred to Immigration New Zealand by the UNHCR. Immigration New Zealand has processed Palestinian refugee resettlement cases as these have been referred by the UNHCR.