New Zealand human rights watchdog calls for increasing refugee quota

One of New Zealand's official human rights watchdogs has slammed the government for refusing to raise its refugee quota.

Race Relations Commissioner Susan Devoy on Wednesday described the long-standing refugee resettlement quota of 750 people as "a 30-year track record of doing nothing but the bare minimum."

"In years to come when our children ask us what we did as the world faced its worst humanitarian crisis in history, what will we say to them? Will we make excuses? Will we wish we did something?" Devoy said in a published speech to the National Refugee Resettlement Forum.

"New Zealanders need to start talking about our refugee quota, the time to do something is yesterday. We must get some guts and we must increase our refugee quota," she said.

"We have millions of displaced people in the world, most of them children. This is New Zealand's opportunity to lead by example as a (UN) Security Council member. We must pull our weight as a responsible, humane global citizen."

Prime Minister John Key claimed earlier this week that 65 people from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh on a boat recently intercepted by the Australian navy off eastern Indonesia had been heading to this country.

On Wednesday, he told Radio New Zealand that he thought it was more important to settle those who came to New Zealand well than to increase the overall quota.

"The issue here is, if we take more will we do as good a job?" said Key.

Devoy said focusing only on the costs of resettling refugees was "cynical and unfair."

"To label them solely as a cost on society is both insulting and incorrect," she said. Endi