Nedal Ebrahim and his family fled the war in Syria in 2013.
“We only had time to take our papers and we left with the clothes we were wearing that day. We left everything else behind,” Ebrahim said.
The family flew to Lebanon and boarded a connecting flight to Thailand, the point of disembarkation for thousands of refugees fleeing conflict zones.
Ebrahim was arrested by the Thai authorities and put in jail before he got in touch with Immigration New Zealand, which had offered the Ebrahim family resettlement in Aotearoa.
The resettlement process was fast tracked and the family finally made it to New Zealand.
The family arrived in Auckland in 2018 and entered the Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre.
After going through an orientation course on New Zealand, which included learning about Kiwi culture and how to access the services and support available to refugees, the recent arrivals were shifted to one of the refugee resettlement locations around New Zealand .
The Ebrahim family ended up in Dunedin. Thanks to the efforts of the New Zealand Red Cross, Ebrahim found work as a kitchen hand in 2019.
This is one of several success stories that play out each year in the lives of refugees arriving in Aotearoa after fleeing war-torn areas around the globe.
The New Zealand Red Cross plays a pivotal role in this rehabilitation process.
With its headquarters in Thorndon, Wellington, the Red Cross offers the “Pathway to Employment Programme” to refugees entering the country.
This focuses on creating a plan for employment based on tapping the existing skill sets the refugees bring with them.
Pathways to Employment teams also use their local connections to identify roles that match the profiles of former refugees looking for work.
“Red Cross isn’t going to recommend somebody they didn’t think will be able to manage…. There’s a pool of wonderful people out there. We get so much back,” notes Jane, who owns ELCO Apparel in Dunedin.
The New Zealand Red Cross also offers a Refugee Trauma Recovery service, which provides “clinical and therapeutic support to former refugees who have experienced torture and/or trauma.”
This service is available to children, youth and adults.
Refugees who have suffered trauma talk in confidence to professionals, who include psychologists, psychotherapists, counsellors, social workers and psychiatrists.
These services are offered to former refugees free of charge by the Red Cross.
Interpreters are provided, whenever necessary.
The entire process is voluntary, according to the Red Cross.
“I feel a great burden has fallen off my shoulders and that feeling of depression has gone. The Refugee Trauma Recovery service has helped me make that positive step toward the future and given me a sense of hope,” said a former refugee, who wished to remain anonymous.
The Red Cross trains volunteers to help former refugees feel “safe again, get used to new systems, new cultures, learn “Kiwi” English and build networks.”
Refugee support volunteers very often become the first Kiwi friends of refugee families arriving in NZ.
Touching each others’ lives can be a life-changing experience for all parties involved in the refugee rehabilitation process.
Refugees are defined under the 1951 Refugee Convention as someone who, “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.”
Refugees fleeing Syria, Afghanistan and Somalia make up 54 per cent of displaced people worldwide.
Last year, New Zealand welcomed refugees from 21 different countries.