What's in the news? - New Refugee settlement location in the South Island


Dunedin chosen as new refugee settlement location


Dunedin chosen as new refugee settlement location
Dunedin has been selected as a new refugee settlement location following a whole of Government assessment.
The assessment included looking at employment, housing and Government services available alongside the support provided by the local community.
The decision to choose Dunedin was made by the New Zealand Refugee Resettlement Strategy Senior Officials’ Group - made up of representatives from Immigration New Zealand (INZ), Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Social Development, Office of Ethnic Communities and Department of Internal Affairs.
There are currently five settlement locations in New Zealand where quota refugees are settled after they have completed the six week reception programme at the Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre - Auckland region, Waikato, Manawatu, Wellington region and Nelson.
INZ General Manager Steve McGill says an extra settlement location is needed following the Government’s decision to welcome 750 Syrian refugees over the next two and a half years in response to the ongoing conflict in Syria.
Dunedin was considered alongside New Plymouth, Hastings / Napier, Invercargill and Tauranga.
Mr McGill says all the locations had certain advantages but Dunedin was selected for a number of reasons.
“Dunedin has a strong set of services and is a well-connected city where a number of government agencies have a presence,” he says. “There are good employment opportunities in the area, suitable housing is available and there is excellent support from the community.”
Our Computers in Homes team is following this with interest in anticipation of being asked to support new families in the southern regions.

Palmerston North Refugee Families Graduate October 2015

Ten new families  have completed their Computers in Homes training this month at Freyberg High School in Palmerston North with a mixture of families from the Bhutanese, Afghani and Burmese communities.  Thank you to Florence Kelly and the team at Freyberg for supporting each one of the families throughout their training and making them all feel very welcome at Freyberg High.

We would also like to acknowledge Cr Adrian Broad, Jenny Pepworth (Red Cross) and Gina Gonzales (M.O.E) for celebrating the day with us all and presenting the families with their certificates.

We are very fortunate to have a fantastic network of organisations wrapped around these families to ensure that they can support their children's learning, open opportunities for further education or employment for themselves and also be able to communicate with family overseas.

Well done


Palmerston North Refugee Families Graduation 31 October 2015 on PhotoPeach