• Asylum procedures in New Zealand • • • • person is assessed to be either a refugee or in need of complementary protection and satisfies health, identity and security requirements, they will be granted a protection visa. • Decisions to refuse an application can be appealed to the Refugee Review Tribunal (RRT), or in some circumstances the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). In limited circumstances, the applicant can seek judicial review of negative decisions made by the RRT or the AAT. • Arrival at an excised offshore place – third country processing was introduced in 2012 for arrivals to an “excised offshore place” (e.g. Christmas Island), and was extended from May 2013 to apply to all boat arrivals in Australia. Under the system, asylum seekers who arrive by boat are transferred to a third country as soon as is reasonably practicable unless the Minister for Immigration exercises his discretion to exempt them from transfer.42 Australia has a policy of mandatory detention for asylum-seekers who arrive in excised offshore places. Since August 2012, over 4,500 asylum-seekers have arrived at Christmas Island. The majority have been transferred to immigration detention facilities in Australia, where their claims for protection are unlikely to be processed for many months.43 There is an annual quota of 750 resettled refugees, 600 of which fall under the ‘protection’ category. A further 75 are selected from ‘women at risk’ and the other 75 fall within the category of ‘medical/disabled’.44 In 2007-2008, 19.2 percent of newly arriving refugees were found to have a history of torture.45 New Zealand has incorporated and codified the Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol into national legislation through the Immigration Act 2009. A person can also be recognised as a protected person in accordance with either UNCAT or the ICCPR under the 2009 Act. The Immigration Act 2009 contains provisions for the refusal to consider an application that is considered to be manifestly unfounded, clearly abusive or is a repeat of a previous claim. The individual has the right to appeal against this decision to the Immigration and Protection Tribunal. The Immigration Act 2009 established the Immigration and Protection Tribunal (IPT) to consider all grounds for appeal together in a single decision, where possible, including the refusal to grant refugee status, or decisions to remove or deport the asylum applicant.46 There are current proposals to introduce mandatory detention for groups of asylum-seekers arriving by sea, similar to the policy followed in Australia. 18 / Recognising victims of torture in national asylum procedures