Accepting New Zealand’s offer over refugee resettlement is a no-brainer

New Zealand's offer to resettle refugees from Australia's offshore immigration detention system provides Australia with an ideal third country resettlement solution for those refugees who remain in PNG and Nauru. Australia has repeatedly said it would consider resettling refugees in New Zealand only after its 2016 deal with the United States was extinguished.

The US has so far resettled 936 refugees from Australia, and a further 258 have been provisionally accepted. This will bring the number of refugees resettled in America to 1,194, which is close to the deal's cap. However, Australia's policy to transfer refugees held in its offshore detention facilities to America has been unacceptably slow and cumbersome.

US sources with knowledge of the refugee transfer program say that despite the Biden administration increasing the size of its refugee resettlement program for 2021, there will be no additional places for refugees held by Australia.

In October 2020 the secretary of Australia's home affairs department, Mike Pezzullo, confirmed to a Senate estimates hearing that the Australian Government would consider the New Zealand resettlement offer - to accept 150 refugees from offshore each year- once the US deal was extinguished.

Given the imminent end to Australia's long-running US refugee swap agreement, Australia should urgently consider New Zealand's offer.

Whether Australia should accept New Zealand's offer is a no-brainer. Accepting the offer will bring an end to the suffering for those stranded in limbo in both Nauru and Papua New Guinea and it will save the Australian taxpayer billions of dollars, by allowing Australia's offshore processing facilities in both PNG and Nauru to close.

The Australian Government has previously said it has been reluctant to allow refugees to resettle in New Zealand because, after five years, they could claim citizenship and would be eligible to travel without restriction to Australia; this position is belied by the fact that Australia regularly prevents some New Zealand citizens from entering Australia.

Put simply, the xenophobic claim that refugees resettled in New Zealand will use that country as a 'backdoor' to resettle in Australia is entirely unfounded.

The PNG government should enter direct negotiations with New Zealand to resettle those 124 refugees who remain in PNG in New Zealand. Likewise, the Australian Government should agree to New Zealand's offer for the remaining 107 refugees on Nauru to be resettled in New Zealand.

This will bring to an end the ongoing human suffering of those refugees whose lives remain in limbo in both PNG and Nauru, and it will allow the Australian Government to close all of its offshore processing facilities which will save the Australian taxpayer billions of dollars.