Editorial: New Zealand should take more refugees!
Resist! New Zealand resist!
The Otago district on the Southern island of New Zealand. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otago
New Zealand, mostly due to its location, has dodged the refugee/asylum-seeker bullet so far, but a movement is afoot to open New Zealand to the joys of diversity by increasing slowly (at first) the number of refugees it would accept from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.
Here is an editorial at the Otaga Daily Times. Remember readers that the UN is not pressuring Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, or China to accept refugees—it is really only western countries that are being pressured into opening their borders to masses from the third world.
A cry is regularly made for New Zealand to increase its refugee quota. This country each year accepts approximately 750 through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
[….]
But, as a good global citizen, for our own respect and because of our leadership position as a member of the United Nations Security Council, New Zealand can do more.
Prime Minister John Key has been resisting any such push.
In this he might be close to the pulse and fears of many New Zealanders, whatever the majority of publicised views.
[….]
A rapid increase in numbers accepted could well undermine the goodwill and capacity of the community – volunteers do a lot of work with refugees – and leave many with insufficient support and set up to fail.
What could be achieved, however, is a careful and staged increase at first to, say, 1000 a year and then beyond.
To our New Zealand readers, you must say NO to this idea. Tell them you will consider 1,000 when Saudi Arabia takes in (permanently!) 1,000 impoverished African Muslims! Or, when the Chinese give shelter and citizenship to 1,000 Syrians! (That won’t happen until hell freezes over!)
An afterthought! For comparison, don’t forget that the US is being pressured into taking 65,000 Syrians before the end of 2016, in addition to the 70,000 refugee flow from around the world we normally get.
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