Refugee concession draws calls to raise New Zealand's "embarrassing" quota

Aid agencies and lawmakers Monday welcomed the New Zealand government's announcement that it will take 750 refugees from the conflict in Syria, but they said the government must offer more help in the long-term.

After a week of criticism over its insistence on adhering to its 30-year-old annual quota of 750 refugees, the government yielded Monday and announced it would take 150 Syrians within the existing 2015-2016 annual quota, as well as another 100 this financial year and a further 500 over the next two financial years on top of the quota.

Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse said a regular three- year review of the refugee quota would continue as planned next year, when the government would review the possibility of further assistance.

However, the opposition Green Party said it would go ahead with introducing a Bill to Parliament to permanently raise the country' s refugee quota.

"While it is a good first step that New Zealand has agreed to an emergency intake of 600 refugees over two and a half years, this doesn't solve the long term problem of New Zealand's embarrassingly low refugee quota," Green Party co-leader James Shaw said in a statement.

While the Bill sought to lift the quota to 1,000 refugees a year -- a number the majority of Parliament was prepared to support when it was drafted in June -- the country could do better than that.

Internal Affairs Minister and leader of the government's support party United Future Peter Dunne said the outpouring of public support for the refugee cause had shown New Zealanders were willing to see their country play its part.

"While this move will show New Zealand is prepared to play some role in alleviating the current crisis in Europe, it should not be at the expense an increase in the annual refugee quota to at least 1,000," Dunne said in a statement.

New Zealand humanitarian aid workers called on the government to double the permanent refugee quota.

"It's a shame that it has taken the well- publicized photo and story of a death of a child on a beach to wake us up to the desperation of refugees," Ian McInnes, chair of the NGO Disaster Relief Forum, representing non-governmental organizations working in humanitarian aid, said in a statement.

"Per head of population, we lag well behind many countries, including Australia whose ratio is three times as high."

Spurred by pictures of desperate refugees in Europe, critics -- including the government's own Race Relations Commissioner and minor parties supporting the government -- last week lambasted the government for its refusal to raise its refugee intake from its quota of 750, which has remained unchanged for 30 years.

Woodhouse on Monday described the government's move as "an appropriate response."

"Official advice is an immediate intake of any more than the extra 100 announced today for this year could put unreasonable strains on services, affecting the quality of resettlement outcomes for all refugees in New Zealand," he said in a statement.

"There are practical limitations around our ability to provide enough housing, translators, health services -- all factors we need to take into consideration."

Also on Monday, Foreign Minister Murray McCully announced a further 4.5 million NZ dollars (2.82 million NZ dollars) to help refugees displaced by fighting in Syria, bringing New Zealand's total humanitarian contribution to the refugee crisis to 20 million NZ dollars (12.54 million U.S. dollars).

"New Zealand is using its position on the United Nations Security Council to call for action and we continue to urge all members to work together to find a way of ending the violence," McCully said in a statement. Endi