New Zealand PM under fire for inflexible refugee stance

The New Zealand government, currently represented on the United Nations Security Council, was accused of lacking global leadership Tuesday after ruling out an increase in refugee numbers.

New Zealand has accepted a quota of 750 refugees a year for the last three decades and humanitarian groups and representatives have called for an increase given the migrant crisis unfolding in Europe.

But Prime Minister John Key had flatly rejected an emergency intake of refugees, Radio New Zealand reported Tuesday.

"Everyone accepts the enormity of the challenge of what's taking place, but New Zealand can pride itself on the fact that it 's one of the countries that's consistently taken refugees for a long period of time," Key said in the report.

Key said the refugee quota was due to be reviewed next year and he would take advice from officials then.

But New Zealand needed to make sure it could provide a proper service in areas such housing and education before upping its intake, he said.

However, government allies and opponents alike criticized Key's stance.

Internal Affairs Minister and head of one of the government's minority party partners Peter Dunne said consideration should be given to an emergency response to the mounting refugee numbers in Europe.

There was also a strong case for lifting New Zealand's annual refugee quota to at least 1,000 people, he said in a statement.

"It is the very least we can do as a good international citizen. "

The main opposition Labor Party said Key's refusal to consider even a one-off increase for some of the 9 million Syrian refugees was disgraceful.

"New Zealand can absorb a further 250 or even 500 people. These aren't numbers; they are parents, children and grandparents," Labor leader Andrew Little said in a statement.

"The Prime Minister says that would only be a drop in the ocean and wouldn't help address the crisis. This is contrary to his argument for sending a handful of our troops to fight ISIS in Iraq. "

And one of New Zealand's leading international law experts said Key's assertion that New Zealand was unable to accept more refugees was an untenable excuse.

"The last time we took in additional numbers was when we were on the Security Council in 1993, and taking an additional quota of Somali refugees a total of 2,000 by 2006 was part of being a global leader," Professor Al Gillespie, of Waikato University, said in a statement.

"We are on the Security Council again; we are involved in the war in Iraq; we have a solid economy, geographical space and a cosmopolitan society; and we have a very low quota of refugees in both body count, and on a per-capita basis compared to similar developed countries." Endi