Quota Programme

Quota refugees are people whom the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has mandated as refugees overseas. These people are selected for resettlement in New Zealand under the annual Refugee Quota Programme which comprises three main sub-categories: protection cases; women-at-risk; and medical/disabled. Underlying these categories, there is a focus on family links.

Of the 135 countries that have signed the UN Convention on the Status of Refugees, nine governments currently host the bulk of the refugees who are annually resettled in new countries: Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and the USA. In addition countries such as Benin, Burkina Faso, Brazil, Chile, Iceland, Ireland and the United Kingdom have started to implement resettlement programmes in co-operation with UNHCR. Other countries accept cases on an ad hoc basis.

The resettlement of refugees is used only as a last resort when the refugees cannot return safely to their country of origin (voluntary repatriation), or when they cannot be integrated into the country in which they first sought refuge (local integration). Refugee Resettlement is New Zealand's resettlement agency and is contracted by the government to assist quota refugees in making new lives in this country.

Other types of refugees

Convention refugees are former asylum seekers whose refugee status has been recognised in New Zealand by domestic authorities. 

Refugee Family Support Category
The objective of the Refugee Family Support Category is to help refugees living in New Zealand to settle by allowing them to sponsor family members for residence. New Zealand welcomes 300 sponsored people (including their partners and dependent children) to settle in New Zealand each year under the Refugee Family Support Category (from the Immigration Website)

New Zealand resettles an average of 750 quota refugees per annum referred by the UNHCR, and depending on the number of successful applications for asylum, convention refugee numbers will vary from year to year. Between 1980 and 2002, 16,556 refugees and displaced persons were resettled under the Refugee Quota Programme.

The geographic mix of source countries for New Zealand's refugee intake has shifted over the past 25 years in response to changing global circumstances and humanitarian needs. The top five source countries for Quota refugees coming to New Zealand in recent years are Iraq, Somalia, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, and Burma/Myanmar. For Convention refugees the top five source countries are Iran, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Somalia and Iraq. For more detailed information see our most recent annual report or the Department of Labour (immigration section) website.

Having arrived in New Zealand, the geographic spread of refugees tends to follow the national pattern of population concentrations, with the major urban regions being the main areas of refugee resettlement. A high proportion are located in Auckland. Refugee Resettlement has responsibility for selecting where incoming quota refugees will be resettled. These decisions are made on whether family or friends are already living in an area and what services and support are available in which city for people from a particular community.