 In early October 2019, the Immigration Minister Iain Lees-Galloway announced that the Labour-led coalition government would be scrapping the discriminatory requirement that African and Middle Eastern refugee applicants already have relatives who were residing in New Zealand.While the African and Middle Eastern regions had their refugee allocation quota increased from 14% to 15%, the Government would still continues its focus on the Asia-Pacific region, which is allocated 50% on the annual refugee quota.This change followed criticism of the Government's refugee resettlement policy by refugee advocates Guled Mire and Murdoch Stephens, petition from World Vision, and comments from Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon.