New Zealand offers home to Syria's most desperate refugees

Up to 100 refugees in need of urgent protection in Syria will be resettled in New Zealand, the New Zealand government announced Tuesday.


Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse said the humanitarian situation in Syria was deteriorating by the day and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had called on the international community for assistance.

"New Zealand's annual refugee quota includes places reserved for emergency resettlement from large-scale crisis situations, if required, for exactly the type of situation we are seeing in Syria, " Woodhouse said in a statement.

Selected refugees would be interviewed and undergo full screening and security assessment before being accepted.

The first Syrian refugees are expected to arrive in New Zealand during the second half of 2014.

The move was in addition to 12.5 million NZ dollars (10.11 million U.S. dollars) New Zealand had already provided to help those displaced by the conflict in Syria.

Refugee Council of New Zealand spokesperson Gary Poole said the urgent high protection cases were mostly women and children in need of immediate care.

"All they want is a place of safety and land of peace for these 100 desperate women and children to be able to come to get help in New Zealand is like the gift of a new life," Poole said in a statement.

The United Nations had confirmed that more than a million people had fled Syria as refugees since the civil war began two years ago, he said.