Refugee quota one in 927

Press, 18 July 1979, Page 6

Refugee quota one in 927

PA Wellington) New Zealand is now accepting one Indo-Chinese refugee for every 927 New Zealanders, according to the Labour Department’s Assistant Secretary of Labour (Mr! P. Jones). The Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) said on Monday that New Zealand’s quota would be increased by an extra 1800 people, who would be taken between January, 1980, and June, 1981. The increase was announced just a week before the beginning of the Geneva conference on the refugee problem. Mr Jones said yesterday that the quota was good by world standards.

“Compared with the rest of the world, we’re doing very well indeed,” he said. By comparison, Australia was taking one . refugee for every 700 of its population, Sweden one for every 3280, and France one for every 929. However, the Government’s announcement on refugee quotas is misleading, according to the Rev B. Goridon, chairman of the InterChurch Commission on Immigration.

Mr Gordon said yesterday that those connected with resettling refugees had assumed that this year’s quota of 900 would at least be matched next year, and probably the year after. Mr Muldoon’s announce-

ment of an 1800 quota for the 18 months from January, 1980, therefore represented an increase of only 450, he said. “However, my main concern is that I feel we could have done a bit better,” Mr Gordon said. “A strong plea has been made by the Anglican Church, and the Catholic Church is examining the issue. I get many letters from Methodist churches with offers of sponsorships.” Orientation processes at the Mangere immigration reception centre were believed to be the bottleneck, he said, ! although the hostel could readily take at least 100 refugees a month. Highly trained teachers had built up a good programme at Mangere, so it was desirable the centre remained there. Mr Gordon said that refugee action groups throughout New Zealand had pushed the sponsorship aspect of refugee settlement imagina-

tively, but had tended to ignore orientation. They had made their point with the Government. The Mangere hostel could take a maximum of 240, said Mr J. Dynes, a Labour Department spokesman in Auckland. About 50 beds were occupied by permanent residents. Of the present intake of 134, some young children were “topping and tailing.” Indo-China refugee action groups around New Zealand are now likely to concentrate on winning Government support for a proposal to send a mercy ship to the South China Sea. A spokesman for the Auckland group said that Government support was essential to guarantee refuge for rescued “boat people.” The mercy ship proposal now seemed the only viable way of making a useful contribution at a time of crisis, he said.