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Refugee and Asylum Seeker Law


New Zealand Refugee Statistics


UNHCR Resettlement Handbook - New Zealand


Books


Legislation

The principal legislation dealing with the protection of asylum seekers in New Zealand is the Immigration Act 2009. The official and most up to date version of the Act is on the New Zealand Legislation website. The relevant provisions are contained in Part Five (ss124-152) Refugee and protection status determinations.


New Zealand Refugee Law Cases

Freely available full text decisions - unreported

New Zealand refugee and asylum cases are heard in the following courts and tribunal:

  • Supreme Court
  • Court of Appeal
  • High Court
  • Immigration and Protection Tribinal (formerly the Refugee Status Appeals Authority)
    • New Zealand Refugee Status Appeals Authority (NZRSAA) on NZLII includes full text decisions from 1991-present (incomplete).
    • These decisions are also on RefWorld, which has more complete holdings.
    • The RSAA ceased to exist on 29 November 2010, when it was replaced by the Immigration and Protection Tribunal. The decisions of the Tribunal are on RefWorld and NZLII.
    • Leading cases from the Tribunal are also in full text on RefNZ (New Zealand Refugee Law).

Selected refugee decisions (which are usually described as 'leading' decisions) from all NZ courts and the Tribunal are available on:

  • RefWorld
  • RefNZ

Commentary & Journal Articles

RefNZ provides links to free full-text articles and commentary on New Zealand refugee law.

The NZ Refugee Research Directory website includes recent full text annotated bibliographies and literature reviews on refugee issues - for example Rights-based approaches to mental health services with refugees: An annotated bibliography (2010)


A great place to start....

NZ Refugee News


NZ Refugee News

Newsfeed from UNHCR

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NZ Refugee Agencies