Main points
- Six people have flown from Australia's offshore processing centre in Nauru to New Zealand.
- It's the first move in a deal to have 450 refugees resettle in New Zealand over three years.
- The finalisation of the deal was announced in March.
Six refugees from Australia's offshore processing regime in Nauru have landed in Auckland.
It is the first transfer under a resettlement deal New Zealand offered the Australian government nine years ago.
“We confirm a flight left Nauru today destined for New Zealand with an initial six refugees on board," Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil said in a statement on Tuesday.
"The Australian and New Zealand governments continue to work together to resettle annually 150 refugees from Australia’s existing regional processing cohort.”
The finalisation of the deal was announced in March this year, with the terms allowing 150 refugees to be resettled in New Zealand annually over a three-year period.
People detained in Australia's offshore detention centre on Nauru and those referred by the UNHCR — the UN Refugee Agency — are eligible.
The 450 places under the deal did not cover all the estimated 1,384 individuals in Australia's onshore and offshore detention centres in March 2023.
SBS News reported in September that and were expected to complete their resettlement in New Zealand by the end of the year.
Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil confirmed the transfer. Source: AAP / JAMES ROSS
"We're absolutely overjoyed for them [the six men travelling to New Zealand]. After nearly 10 years, they're finally having the freedom they deserve. But it will take a while for them to be able to rebuild their lives after suffering the impacts of offshore processing, " she told SBS News.
"It is also bittersweet because of those left behind."
She said nearly 100 people remain on Nauru, and another 100 on Papua New Guinea (PNG). An additional 500 people, including refugees onshore in Australia, are not covered by other resettlement deals that Australia has with the US and Canada.
She said those who remain on Nauru and PNG need medical treatment and should be medically evacuated to Australia.
"Talking to the men who are still in Papua New Guinea or Nauru - after nine years, all of them would need some kind of medical or physical care because of issues that have been compounded.
"The only way for them to start to start healing and to get onto that journey of safety is to come to Australia for medical treatment."
The recent does not include those detained in Australia's offshore detention centres.
"We have to remember the spotlight has really been removed from people who were detained offshore. It was an intentional policy by the (former) Coalition government to have them out of sight, out of mind," Ms Favero said.
The policy to not allow people who arrived in Australia by boat to settle here permanently was introduced by the then-Labor government in 2013 and is supported by both major parties.
In the October budget, an increase of $150 million in spending this financial year on offshore processing, expanding the 2022-23 allocation to $632.5 million.
