World wide, there are people who are forced to find a safe refuge because they face persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion. Aotearoa New Zealand offers resettlement to refugees in accordance with international guidelines and our own immigration legislation. Changes to the way we accept and resettle refugees were proposed this year, with ongoing challenges highlighted. Resettlement in 2013 The vast majority of refugees in Aotearoa New Zealand enter through the annual United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) resettlement programme. Since 1987 New Zealand has accepted up to 750 refugees each year in accordance with its annual quota. These people are often referred to as “quota refugees”. In 2012−13, a total of 751 quota refugees were resettled, mostly from Myanmar, Iraq, Bhutan, Columbia and Sri Lanka.37 The majority were resettled in Auckland or Wellington, with others being supported to resettle in the Nelson, Manawatü and Waikato regions. Thirty Afghan interpreters and 64 family members were offered residency in recognition of their assistance to New Zealand troops and were resettled in Hamilton and Palmerston North. Aotearoa New Zealand’s resettlement programme represents a positive model both regionally and globally. Concerns continue to be raised, however, about the requirement that resettlement from Africa and the Middle East be supported by the presence of family links in Aotearoa New Zealand. This requirement limits the scope for priority protection cases to be included in the annual quota. In 2012−13, 306 people lodged claims for asylum in New Zealand. Most of these claims were by people from Sri Lanka, Iran, Fiji, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. A total of 86 applications were approved. A total of 560 people, including partners and family members, were invited to apply for residence to join others who had resettled here as refugees. Two-hundred and sixty-one were granted residence visas. Tüi Tüi Tuituiä | Race Relations in 2013 In November 2013, a man claiming to be New Zealand’s first climate change refugee had his application for asylum turned down by the High Court. The man who is facing deportation to Kiribati plans to take his case to the Court of Appeal, where he will argue that rising sea levels are making his homeland uninhabitable. Agreement with Australia In February 2013, the Government of New Zealand announced a new bilateral agreement with Australia indicating that from June 2014, 150 refugees who are part of Australia’s refugee intake will be accepted in Aotearoa New Zealand each year. This will form part of the New Zealand Government’s current commitment to resettle 750 refugees a year, reducing the number of places available for referral by UNHCR to 600 places. The decision was strongly criticised by UNHCR, Amnesty International and others, at a time when around 860,000 refugees are in need of resettlement with fewer than 85,000 resettlement places available globally each year. . . Concerns were also raised that these 150 refugees may be subject to years of mandatory detention in Australia or in offshore centres in the Pacific islands of Nauru and Papua New Guinea's Manus Island under Australia’s ‘no advantage’ immigration policy. In its 2013 report, the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) urged the New Zealand Government to refrain from sending asylum seekers to the Australian offshore centres until the conditions meet international standards. New health checks for quota refugees From 1 July 2013 new health checks for quota refugees were introduced to assess whether a person poses a serious public health risk or could place demands on Aotearoa New Zealand’s health system. The checks look for specified health conditions such as severe haemophilia, drug resistant TB and conditions requiring dialysis treatment or full-time care. The new criteria mean anyone assessed as having certain conditions or treatment needs will not be selected for the quota programme unless granted an exception on a caseby-case basis by the Minister of Immigration. 49