Jacinda Ardern joins refugees going to plant a tree of remembrance at the Māngere resettlement centre. Photo / Getty Images
Jacinda Ardern joins refugees going to plant a tree of remembrance at the Māngere resettlement centre. Photo / Getty Images
Jacinda Ardern has welcomed our newest group of refugees with a wish that they would experience manaakitanga (hospitality) in New Zealand.
The Prime Minister was at the Māngere Refugee Resettlement Centre yesterday to celebrate World Refugee Day.
She also greeted families who lost relatives in the Christchurch terror attacks andjoined them in planting a tree of remembrance at the centre.
Speaking to refugees who were graduating after six weeks at the centre — which helps prepare them for life in New Zealand with English classes and health screening — Ardern told them Kiwis took their responsibility for manaakitanga very personally.
Jacinda Ardern consoles Nadia Stas, who lost her son-in-law and a grandchild in the Christchurch terror attacks. Photo / Getty Images
She hoped they would come to feel New Zealand was home, and that "those you live with will feel like your new brothers and sisters".
New Zealand will lift its annual refugee quota to 1500 next year but is already struggling to house the existing quota of 1000 because of the housing shortage.
