ASST Responds To Minister Of Immigration’s Announcement Of New Legislation ‘Cracking Down’ On Asylum System
The Government’s proposed asylum crackdown is being sold as common sense. But the reality behind New Zealand’s asylum system is far less convenient — long waits, razor-thin margins for survival, and families living in limbo while politicians talk tough over a handful of cases.
The Asylum Seekers Support Trust (ASST) is a charity supporting 2,600 people from all over the world – men, women, children, families – seeking asylum and safety in Aotearoa New Zealand from persecution, war, conflict and climate change. ASST provides emergency accommodation and material aid as well as wrap around support through both the protracted asylum claim system and the precarity of living on the margins while people wait for that crucial decision recognising their status as a refugee.
The myth of a ‘soft touch’ asylum system
ASST notes the Minister of Immigration’s comments announcing proposed new legislation regarding the asylum system. We look forward to commenting further in due course on the detail of the legislation, the Immigration (Enhanced Risk Management) Amendment Bill. In the meantime, from our long experience supporting people seeking asylum throughout the country for over 30 years, ASST respectfully rejects the Minister of Immigration’s characterisation of the asylum system in Aotearoa New Zealand being a ‘soft touch’. In fact, the asylum system developed and operated by the Minister’s own Immigration department investigates each person’s asylum claim in minute detail and the threshold to be met for refugee recognition is high.
The actual reality for people and families seeking asylum in Aotearoa New Zealand is that it is a long, uncertain and precarious life seeking safety through the asylum system. In the last few months alone ASST distributed 130 food boxes a week to families and provided 366 items in material aid. Our emergency accommodation is full.
So, who is this crackdown really aimed at?
The Minister refers to purported actions of just 14 people out of 4,002 people and families currently in the system seeking safety, waiting years for a decision on their refugee status, to justify a so-called crackdown on an asylum system developed by her own Ministry over decades. As ASST General Manager, Dawit Arshak, says “Overwhelmingly the people and families seeking asylum are ordinary people like you or me – teachers, engineers, shopkeepers, students – who never imagined when they packed their bags, fled their homes and crossed a border to seek safety that their lives would unfold this way. There are always legitimate policy debates on asylum management and systems, but the answer is not for governments to turn their back on basic human rights or grow a narrative designed to place constraints on our compassion. It is greater help with support to restore mental health, wellbeing and integration for people seeking safety who are living a life of extreme uncertainty.”
Refugees have long been used to sow fear and scrape a few extra votes. However, at ASST we are asking all political parties to play fair when focusing on vulnerable communities in this way, especially people seeking asylum who cannot comment or defend themselves for fear of jeopardising their claim for refugee status. Behind every quick headline and half explained statistic there are real people with human stories at the heart of these debates with real life consequences. ASST is always available to answer questions about the whole human experience of forcibly displaced people seeking safety and asylum in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The Global picture is this: Currently 117 million people, one in 70 people on the planet, are forcibly displaced by persecution, war, conflict and climate change – a number that has doubled in the last decade. 8.4 million are seeking asylum with 30.5 million refugees under the UNHCR – 71% of whom are hosted by low-mid income countries with less than 1% eventually being resettled (UNHCR Mid-Year Global Trends 2025). The right to seek safety, asylum and protection from persecution in another country has been a basic human right for over 75 years ratified by New Zealand and incorporated into its domestic law. New Zealand resettles 1,500 refugees through the UNCHR Resettlement programme, 0.03% of our population. Roughly 2,200 people a year seek asylum here, just 0.04% of our population (INZ Statistic Pack, Refugees and Protected Peoples, Jan 2026). Together, these numbers represent a tiny fraction of our population. So, we can and should play our part as global citizens, treating others how we would wish to be treated in their shoes, by giving safety and support here to people who have had no choice but to leave their home.
