The Australian government has agreed to New Zealand's refugee resettlement offer purely because it is politically expedient with an election looming, Amnesty says.
Refugees stage a protest about their detention at the Park Hotel where tennis player Novak Djokovic was also detained in January 2022. Photo: AFP
A backdown by the Australian government will see hundreds of refugees allowed to resettle in New Zealand.
In a deal announced yesterday, 150 refugees will be allowed to resettle in Aotearoa each year over the next three years.
They will come from detention centres in Nauru or Australia and be screened by the United Nations refugee programme and vetted by New Zealand authorities.
The agreement was set in motion in 2013 by former prime minister John Key but has sat on the table, untouched, since then.
It has been raised repeatedly by successive leaders, but ignored until the Australian government changed its mind and Cabinet signed off on the deal a month ago, Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi announced yesterday.
Australia's sticking point was the fear that refugees would not stay in New Zealand forever - but would gain citizenship and then return through the so-called back door.
The government said those who arrive in Aotearoa will get the same rights as others.
But Australia's Home Affairs Minister Karen Andrews is adamant - they will not be allowed back to Australia permanently.
Amnesty International is a longtime critic of Australia's treatment of refugees describing the treatment of asylum seekers in detention centres as abhorrent and amounting to torture.
Its New Zealand executive director Meg De Ronde said for all the refugees there is a sense of relief but also anger and grief that the Australian government has continued its inhumane approach.
"We have to be really clear that this is a political action by the Australian government and always has been.
"This tough on refugees stance was a [former prime minister] John Howard move back when he was making claims about people throwing their children into the ocean that turned out to be fake. It was always about trying to win voters by looking tough."
It was now "politically convenient" to change tack with a general election on the horizon.
Australian voters were waking up to the fact that the treatment of refugees was abhorrent and has cost the country billions of dollars, De Ronde told Morning Report.
"It was always about trying to win voters by looking tough" - Amnesty International NZ director Meg de Ronde
She had a message for Australian politicians.
"Ultimately if your family was fleeing somewhere, somewhere like Ukraine for instance, and your only option was to get in a boat and make a dangerous journey then you are the type of person that Australia and New Zealand would normally welcome with open arms.
"A resilient strong person who recognises human rights and a safe way for your family is the only thing to value."
Australia has signed up for an international convention on human rights but has continued to ignore it for years, she said.
"It's unacceptable."
Many people in both Australia and New Zealand have fought for the human rights of people trapped on Nauru and Manus Island for years but some Australian politicians have continued to block moves.
Even with many sick people on Manus who needed medical treatment, it was only at the last minute that arrangements were made to help them, she said.
She said the numbers announced yesterday should be on top of the 1500 New Zealand is committed to take each year - a target that has not been met for the last two years because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Some of the refugees evacuated for medical reasons seen at a detention centre in Melbourne in January 2022. Photo: AFP
Refugees need respect and dignity - advocate
A Kurdish-Iranian journalist, writer and film producer Behrouz Boochani, who now lives in Wellington, was detained on Manus Island.
He said the deal would be a huge relief for the refugees and all those who have campaigned to help them.
"They don't need to visit or go to Australia or live there" - Writer and film producer Behrouz Boochani
He agrees that the latest development must be seen in the context of the general election.
Over the past two decades refugees have always been a factor in election campaigns in Australia, Boochani said.
He accused the Australian government of lying many times in the past and he believes that the refugees who are resettled here and get citizenship will not want to return to Australia, as the government there fears.
"This country I think has the capacity to support them so they don't need to visit or go to Australia or live there."
The refugees have been separated from their families so it would be important for the government to help them be reunited and they would also need help to find jobs "to settle down and start a new life".
Nine years was a long time for their ordeal to last so they will need to be treated with dignity and respect.
"They have been dehumanised under this [Australian] system."
Former Nauru detainee Behrouz Boochani does not believe the refugees who resettle in Aotearoa will have any desire to return to Australia. Photo: WORD Christchurch
Refugees pursuing their human rights - Greens
Golriz Ghahraman Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Green MP and the party's spokesperson for refugees, Golriz Ghahraman, said her party has been pushing for this for nine years and she is overjoyed.
The Greens also want the latest deal to be on top of the 1500 refugees New Zealand has agreed to resettle each year.
She told Morning Report that soon 150 refugees will be free and safe and putting down roots in their new home, to be followed by another 300.
Ghahraman said the Key government and the Ardern government have made it clear that New Zealand will not change its law to prevent the refugees then moving to Australia.
If Australia wanted to amend its law there was little New Zealand could do except make it clear it may affect the diplomatic relationship between the two countries.
"We've made it very clear thankfully that we certainly won't be changing our citizenship laws as a part of this deal."
"It's Australia who has become the atrocity committer now" Green MP Golriz Ghahraman
Ghahraman said Australia promotes the idea of boatpeople as a frightening horde descending on their shores but it is exactly what Ukrainians are doing now to flee war - crossing borders into other countries as refugees.
The United Nations and Amnesty has described Australia's treatment of the refugees as torture and its reputation has been tarnished over its actions.
Among the refugees are people escaping persecution or war in the countries of their birth and it was wrong to try and deter them from leaving these situations.
"That's why we have the refugee convention because it's actually a human right... It's Australia who has become the atrocity committer now."
The Australian-based Refugee Action Coalition said a deal for New Zealand to accept refugees once detained on offshore detention centres exposes what it calls the abject cruelty of Australia's processing regime.
Spokesperson Ian Rintoul said anyone who wants to should be allowed to permanently stay in Australia.
He criticised the exclusion of refugees in Papua New Guinea who he said have suffered even worse torture than those on Nauru.