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About a thousand refugees who are set to be resettled in New Zealand remain trapped abroad, waiting for the immigration doors to open.
The first batch of 16 refugees to arrive in the country since the border closed to Covid completed managed isolation last week - they were prioritised as emergency cases because of a perceived high risk of death, jail, or expulsion from their own countries.
But the Red Cross general manager of migration, Rachel O'Connor, told Māni Dunlop the rest of refugees who've been allocated places in New Zealand are also in desperate need.