For the first time in a decade extra funding is being provided to help refugees settle in New Zealand.

Refugee resettlement services will receive a boost of $350,000 a year, beginning in 2001-02, Immigration Minister Lianne Dalziel announced today.

"This funding will enable non-government organisations to provide extra support services to help United Nations-mandated refugees and their families resettle in New Zealand."

The additional funding almost doubles the $364,000 currently paid for refugee resettlement and support services which is delivered through the New Zealand Immigration Service's resettlement budget.

The new funding will help provide a range of services, including:

* volunteer training and support,
* housing assistance and interpreter services;
* information and advice to people in their first year of resettlement,
* ongoing support to refugees past their first year of settlement;
* assistance with refugee family reunification applications.

"The Labour-Alliance Government has always recognised that the true measure of our immigration policies is in how well displaced refugees and new migrants settle in New Zealand.

"I am proud that this funding initiative will boost New Zealand's contribution to international efforts to alleviate the desperate plight of people forced to leave their own homes and countries to resettle in a strange land," Lianne Dalziel said.