New Zealand Anglicans challenge limits on refugee sponsorship program

Posted Aug 27, 2020

[Anglican Communion News Service] Anglicans in New Zealand have joined refugee advocates in welcoming an expansion of the government’s Community Organisation Refugee Sponsorship pilot program, while calling for a fairer plan to enable more vulnerable refugees to receive help from churches.

The New Zealand 2020 budget will see the number of pilot places increase from 25 in 2018 to 150 from 2021 to 2023. But Anglicans are challenging the limits on who can go to New Zealand under the scheme.

The first Community Organisation Refugee Sponsorship pilot (CORS) was launched in 2017 in response to Anglican, Catholic and Baptist churches’ calls for a sponsorship model in which communities directly support new refugees to settle. That advocacy drew on the successful 40-year-long CORS plan in Canada, where faith and community groups have long since taken responsibility to house refugee families and aid them to build a new life.

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