Opposition parties and refugee groups want the annual quota of 750 raised, and they have also been calling for an emergency quota to help ease the growing crisis in Europe.
The government has said it is considering whether it should take more people from Syria, within the annual quota – but it has not budged on increasing that number.
Women rescued off the coast of Libya wait to be processed by authorities after arriving at the port of Palermo, Sicily on 24 August.
Photo: AFP / Citizenside
Fourteen Libyans have claimed asylum so far this year, making Libya the third biggest source of people applying for refugee status on their arrival in New Zealand, behind Fiji and China, with 20 and 17 respectively.
According to the UN, the eruption of civil conflict across the main urban centres in Libya last year has been compounded by boats leaving there to cross the Mediterranean carrying migrants from Syria and Africa.
The asylum seeker figures are in addition to the official annual quota of 750 refugees, who are predominantly from the Asia-Pacific region.
In 2014/2015, refugees from Afghanistan, Myanmar and Bhutan accounted for 412 of that number, compared to 168 for the whole of the Middle East, including Syria, Iran, Iraq, Palestine and Egypt.
Syrian children at a refugee camp south of Damascus in 2014.
Photo: AFP / HO / SANA
The government said it would still take the 100 Syrian refugees it promised to take 18 months ago, even though only 83 have been settled so far.
Immigration New Zealand refugee division national manager Andrew Lockhart said the remaining 17 would be coming in the next financial year.
“In 2014, the New Zealand government agreed to resettle 100 Syrian refugees within the Refugee Quota Programme. To date, 83 Syrian refugees have been resettled in New Zealand and the remaining 17 Syrian refugees will be resettled during the present financial year.
“The refugees are being resettled over two years as some of the original refugees submitted by the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, withdrew for family or other reasons or were declined as they did not meet Immigration New Zealand’s requirements.
“The government is in the process of making decisions on this issue as part of the make-up of the 2015/16 Refugee Quota [Programme].”
