A page titled "Claiming asylum in New Zealand - How to make a claim for refugee or protection status if you are in New Zealand” reads like a how-to guide. It openly instructs individuals, even those on temporary tourist visas, on how to lodge an asylum claim once they have already arrived. For anyone looking to exploit a loophole, the instructions couldn’t be clearer.
New Zealand is party to international agreements that require us to protect people facing danger in their home countries. But the current setup allows individuals who simply fear returning home, a subjective and difficult-to-verify claim, to trigger the asylum process. They then become “refugee and protection claimants,” a title that comes with considerable benefits and very little initial scrutiny.
To start the process, an applicant fills out a 24-page form and sends it to the Refugee Status Unit. That is all it takes. Once the claim is lodged, not approved, just lodged, the floodgates of government support begin to open.
Claimants with valid permits can immediately become eligible for an Emergency Benefit from Work and Income. This payment is meant to help with basic living costs, even before the validity of their asylum claim is assessed. For someone on a tourist visa with no intention of returning home, this creates an incentive to claim asylum as a backdoor to welfare support.
It doesn’t stop there. If refugee status is granted, a host of additional benefits are on offer:
To start the process, an applicant fills out a 24-page form and sends it to the Refugee Status Unit. That is all it takes. Once the claim is lodged, not approved, just lodged, the floodgates of government support begin to open.
Claimants with valid permits can immediately become eligible for an Emergency Benefit from Work and Income. This payment is meant to help with basic living costs, even before the validity of their asylum claim is assessed. For someone on a tourist visa with no intention of returning home, this creates an incentive to claim asylum as a backdoor to welfare support.
It doesn’t stop there. If refugee status is granted, a host of additional benefits are on offer:
- Special Needs Grants to help establish a new home
- Permanent Residence, unlocking long-term welfare support
- Access to Work and Income Support, similar to what struggling New Zealanders receive
- Inclusion in the Refugee Resettlement Strategy, designed to help refugees integrate, including through programs like the Refugee Quota Programme and the Refugee Family Support Category
This is not an argument against helping people in true need. New Zealand has a proud history of compassion, and that should continue. But our policies must strike a better balance between compassion and caution. A process that allows virtually anyone with a tourist visa to claim asylum, receive government support, and apply for residence before their claim is even vetted is ripe for abuse.
When the bar is this low, the line between humanitarian obligation and a policy loophole begins to blur. It is time we asked whether we are protecting the vulnerable, or just leaving the door wide open.
Matua Kahurangi is just a bloke sharing thoughts on New Zealand and the world beyond. No fluff, just honest takes. He blogs on https://matuakahurangi.com/ where this article was sourced.
5 comments:
Such a nonsense needs to stop! Helping those in dire straits is one thing, but creating a system just waiting to be exploited, is nothing short of ludicrous.
It certainly comes across as 'back-door immigration'.
As I have pointed out in my comment to this writer's previous article, there is no obligation under international law (Refugee Convention 1951) for a receiving nation to offer asylum seekers citizenship or even permanent residence. Give them sanctuary until the dangers in their home countries have abated, then repatriate them. In the meantime, if they start acting in a manner that threatens the security of the host country, you can move them along.
Post WW2, and under the guise of "human rights" (presumably including the right of an endless supply of largely backward, largely unskilled, and largely hostile third worlders to emigrate to a nation even if the locals are concerned and strongly object), the nation as a cohesive institution of shared values, shared ethnicity and shared history is completely subverted.
And that is the whole point, because cohesive nations are anathema to global government, free movement of money and free movement of (largely cheap) labour (aka immigration).
A number of parallel strategies are being deployed with, in my view, the object of destroying the cultural integrity of this nation. I include the immigration processes, the aggressive Māorification of local and regional Govt, the insane ‘woke’ activities of bureaucracies and academies, and the complete absence of any ‘defence of the realm’ action by our Govt. It’s almost like the latter are simply operating under instructions. Surely not!
More silly Govt policies with unintended consequences. I see the problem as Govt inertia in changing policies in when it is obvious they are not working. With the plethora of public servants we have, I thought it shouldn't be that hard. Or perhaps that is part of the problem?
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