Feyen supported resettlement
An Immigration New Zealand official says Horowhenua mayor Michael Feyen supported Levin becoming a refugee resettlement location, despite him saying he wasn’t consulted before the scheme was announced earlier this year.
Stuff has revealed Feyen attended meetings with immigration officials in the months ahead of the February announcement, despite him claiming at the time he was blindsided by it. Feyen says he was told about the scheme as a fait accompli, rather than consulted about it.
In response to questions from Stuff, Immigration NZ’S refugee national manager Andrew Lockhart said Feyen and Horowhenua District councillor Jo Mason told officials they were worried about Levin becoming a refugee resettlement location, but showed ‘‘support and commitment’’ to the process. ‘‘It was agreed that the concerns around housing and health services would be jointly worked through as part of the local preparation.’’
In February, Feyen said he was concerned refugees would be coming to a ‘‘life of nothingness’’ in Levin, because locals were struggling to find housing and jobs themselves. He said they would need major Government support to live a meaningful life.
In his statement, Lockhart said Feyen and Mason had a teleconference with Immigration NZ officials on October 30 and expressed concerns about affordable housing and health services for refugees arriving in Levin. Lockhart said the two organisations agreed to work together to deal with problems.
Although Feyen said he had ‘‘limited information’’ about the proposal, an email released to Stuff that was sent to him a week before the public announcement outlined the process for finding housing and support services for refugees.
The email from refugee quota increase programme manager Natalie Baker said it was Housing New Zealand’s responsibility to find public properties for the refugees. If Housing NZ was unable to find one, Immigration NZ would find a private rental property. Baker said the refugees would not depart the Mangere Refugee Resettlement Centre in Auckland until accommodation was secured.