Joris de Bres: Refugees still face a long journey after arrival

Home is where the heart is, a place to feel safe and to belong. But for refugees fleeing persecution or conflict, home can only be a memory held tight in the hope of return one day. The latest figures from the UN Refugee Agency are grim.

It is estimated that worldwide 43.3 million people were forcibly displaced at the end of 2009. That is the population of a Spain or an Argentina, adrift with no permanent address. Nor is safe harbour easy to find. Only 19 countries, New Zealand among them, offer resettlement to refugees. New Zealand becomes a new home to 750 refugees a year.

From 1999 to 2008, 7843 people from 56 countries settled here and each has a story of an individual caught in geopolitical torments.

This year the Human Rights Commission is reviewing the country's human rights record. The aim is to produce a baseline to measure where New Zealand does well and where it could do better.

To mark the recent World Refugee Day the commission has released a draft paper on the Right to Asylum for public consultation. In many respects New Zealand upholds its responsibilities as an international citizen well.

As well as accepting our quota of refugees, there is follow up through Refugee Services Aotearoa - Refugees as Survivors and government initiatives like Settling In and English as a Second Language support. In our towns and cities, community groups and individuals volunteer time and resources to help refugees build a new life.

But refugees do not always arrive from the UN Refugee Agency. They can turn up as individuals, known as spontaneous refugees, and the question then is how does New Zealand respond?

In 2007, the UN Committee on the Convention to End Racial Discrimination (UNCERD) recommended that New Zealand end the practice of detaining refugees seeking asylum in correctional facilities.

This year the UN Human Rights Committee criticised New Zealand for detaining refugees and asylum seekers with convicted prisoners.

So it can be marked as progress, the new Immigration Act is explicit that asylum seekers will only be able to be detained in correctional facilities under very specific conditions - and if detained will be able to wear their own clothes and be held separate from other prisoners to the extent that this is practicable.

The new act also creates the Immigration and Protection Tribunal to replace four previous bodies dealing with refugees, which often left those seeking refugee status a confusing path to follow.

On the other side of the ledger, the new act allows the use of classified information in determining refugee status. This could violate asylum seekers' right to due process and expose them to removal to countries where they risk facing torture.

A new home in New Zealand is not the end of the journey for refugees. Refugee communities agree about the big challenges. They have problems accessing education, finding suitable housing and to locate a job.

Always, there are the financial and bureaucratic trials of reuniting a family often dispersed to the four corners of the world.

Refugees simply want what we all want: family and friends, the opportunity to learn and gainful employment that leads to independence and a sense of worth.

The commission believes there are some simple priorities that would make a difference. We could ease policies on family reunification, have a single resettlement strategy to guide the efforts of all the agencies involved, and give refugees a greater say in the process.

Underlying each is the need to ensure refugees enjoy the same simple human rights we all possess. Refugees have a voice. New Zealand need only listen.

* Joris de Bres is the Race Relations Commissioner at the Human Rights Commission. To read the discussion chapter "The right to asylum" go to www.hrc.co.nz.