Ibrahim Omer

Ibrahim Omer
Ibrahim Omer.jpg
Member of the New Zealand Parliament
for Labour party list
Assumed office
17 October 2020
Personal details
Born1979/1980 (age 42–44)
Eritrea
NationalityNew Zealand
Political partyLabour

Ibrahim Omer (born 1979/1980) is an Eritrean-born New Zealand politician. In 2020 he became a Member of Parliament for the Labour Party.

Early life

Omer is a refugee from Eritrea. His mother language is Saho and he is a Muslim. He fled his home as a teenager to Sudan, where the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees became involved and referred his case on to third countries for resettlement.

While in United Nations-run refugee camps in Sudan, Omer worked as an interpreter. This work led to suspicions of spying, and he was retained by authorities until the United Nations intervened.

Education and organising career

He arrived in New Zealand in 2008, through New Zealand's refugee quota. Omer says that his time in New Zealand began with cleaning and scrubbing floors; this period included working as a cleaner at Victoria University of Wellington where he would study and earn a Bachelor of Arts in political science in 2016. Omer described working until 4am cleaning the university, then attending a lecture at 10am in a room that he had cleaned the night before.

Omer has worked as a union organiser for E tū, and as a community advocate, including as chairperson of ChangeMakers Resettlement Forum. For this work he was awarded an Absolutely Positively Wellingtonian Award by the Wellington City Council in 2019. Omer was also involved in advocating for a living wage, especially for cleaners at Victoria University of Wellington.

Member of Parliament

New Zealand Parliament
Years Term Electorate List Party
2020–present 53rd List 42 Labour

Omer entered Parliament in the 2020 election. He was placed 42nd on the Labour Party's party list, and Labour won enough seats to allow him to enter Parliament with that ranking.

Omer is New Zealand's first African MP, and the second to have entered New Zealand as a refugee after Golriz Ghahraman. Following Jacinda Ardern's resignation as Prime Minister in 2023, Omer stated that " Throughout the past five and a half years, she has led with decisiveness, empathy and kindness".

In February 2023, Omer was one of four candidates vying for the Labour nomination in Wellington Central for the 2023 election after Grant Robertson decided to stand only on the party list. He was successful and will contest the electorate for Labour at the upcoming election.

Political views

Omer has expressed a desire to focus on racism, unequal opportunities, and issues facing low-paid workers during his time in Parliament.

In December 2020, Omer joined Green Party MPs Golriz Ghahraman and Teanau Tuiono in pledging to form a new parliamentary Palestine friendship group to "raise the voices of Palestinian peoples in the New Zealand Parliament" during an event organised by the Wellington Palestine advocacy group to mark the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people.


This page was last updated at 2023-07-04 13:45 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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