Putting our refuge hand up: Molly Kennedy discusses New Zealand's approach to the pressing problem of refugee resettlement in the global context.

AuthorKennedy, Molly
PositionEssay

Yousef Mazreah has worked next door to me for the past eight months. Every Wednesday at 4 pm, he brings me cardamom tea. It comes on a little platter, with a china tea-cup with roses, a pitcher of milk and a bowl of sugar. The cardamom is precious because it is a particular kind that you get overseas, which I am told is not at all like New Zealand cardamom. He does not work for me, so there is no reason for him to do this other than kindness.

Yousef is also a former refugee. I did not actually know his story until I came across it online, as told to Amnesty International, when I was researching some statistics for a recent presentation. (1) Yousef is from Iran. He is an ethnic Ahwazi Arab. For years his people and culture have been persecuted by the Iranian authorities. Yousef grew up hearing stories of his Ahwazi culture from his parents--a culture that he was not allowed to celebrate and a language he was not allowed to speak. Typical of so many oppressed people, Yousef took action. He formed a civil association', a group of young people dedicated to preserving their Arabic culture through peaceful activism; dressing in traditional clothing, celebrating traditional dates--all illegal in the eyes of the Iranian authorities. Their group was watched, scrutinised, followed, threatened. Fearing for their safety the group broke up and 'ran away'. Yousef found himself hiding out at a friend's house in the capital, Tehran. But he was never safe.

Yousef was arrested in Tehran in 1987, aged just 21. He was charged with committing crimes against the country and waging war against God'. At his trial there was no jury and no lawyer to defend him. For his peaceful activism he was sentenced to 21 years in prison.

For 29 months Yousef was held in solitary confinement in a cell measuring just two metres square. His family had no idea where he was, whether he was dead or alive. Sometimes he would be moved into a cell measuring just a metre by 50 centimetres to try to force him to sign a paper saying he would not participate in human rights or political activity. For over two years Yousef did not see the sky, and did not see anyone. He was beaten and threatened with death. Once his family knew where he was they would try to visit him, but they would not always be allowed in. The prison guard told him that if he signed the paper, he would see his family.

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Finally, suffering from ill health and depression, Yousef signed the paper. He agreed that he would not participate in human rights or political activity. In 1995 he was released from prison, seven years after he entered. For the next fifteen years Yousef had no passport. He was trapped in a country where he could no longer be himself. Security services kept an eye on him. He was free from prison but he was not free. Eventually, in 2010 Yousef was granted a passport. He made the decision to leave Iran. He took his family and fled to Indonesia.

Family reunification

Today Yousef and his family live in New Zealand. He came here in 2012 under the family reunification stream, as his brother was already living here. His four children are growing up here, and one was born in New Zealand. He is studying tourism because he believes that everyone should visit and experience the beauty and friendliness of New Zealand. He also works for the New Zealand Red Cross, helping newer arrivals. And he dreams of one day bringing his parents here. Yousef's story is just one of many.

The 1951 United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees defines a refugee as a person who:

owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.... (2) The important thing to take away from this is that being a refugee requires a very certain set of circumstances. You are not a refugee if you leave because you are poor, or because you are displaced by a natural disaster. You also must have crossed an international border in your flight. You have to meet a very high and specific threshold of persecution.

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The United Nations high commissioner for refugees, or UNHCR, is currently seeing larger displacements than at any other time on record. (3) The most comprehensive statistics we have are from the end of 2015; at that stage, of the 65.3 million displaced, around 21.3 million were outside of their countries of origin and therefore were categorised as refugees. And in 2015 more than 50 per cent of the worlds refugees were children.

No guarantee

Making it out of a war-torn country alive is no guarantee of safety or resolution. Around 41 per cent of refugees under the UNCHR mandate are in protracted refugee situations, meaning that the refugee population in that area has been in exile for more than five years. However, the average duration for protracted simations is actually much longer--around 26 years. (4) We have seen people who grew up in refugee camps, and whose parents were born in refugee camps.

The figures have increased dramatically, particularly with the Syrian crisis. The UNCHR announced a new record of 42.5 million forcibly displaced people globally in 2011. Since then, these numbers have risen sharply each year: from 45.2 million in 2012 to 51.2 million in 2013 and 59.5 million in 2014. This is an increase of more than 50 per cent in five years. (5)

As at 2014, more than 1.1 million refugees were considered by the UNHCR as in urgent need of resettlement, but only some 80,000 places were available annually. (6) Even counting recent one-off pledges by countries in response to the Syrian crisis, the...

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