The next intake begins tomorrow and includes 32 people, 15 of them from Afghanistan.
Previously the city's refugees have come from Syria and Palestine.
Red Cross New Zealand volunteer programme lead Leisa de Klerk said there were always particular challenges depending on where refugees arrived from.
A consideration with Afghan intakes was they mostly spoke Dari, rather than the Arabic of Syria and Palestine.
This raised issues in terms of interpreters.
''We're quite lucky in that there is already a big Afghan community in Dunedin. We've already hired some cultural workers and made preparations in the last few months.''
Afghan people had also generally been displaced for much longer than refugees in some other areas.
''The refugee journeys are all individual. For Afghan families they will be coming mostly out of Iraq.''
They had been in camps for so long because the war in Afghanistan began in 2001, she said.
''And there were refugees before that. The average time a refugee spends time in a refugee camps is 19 years. Some people would have been in refugee camps their entire lives.''
Dunedin Refugee Steering Group chairman and Dunedin city councillor Aaron Hawkins said the council had a community hui with Red Cross last year.
It provided an opportunity for people to understand the customs of Afghan people and consider what support was needed.
There was a community of about 60 Afghan people in Dunedin already, he said.
The council was working with the Southern District Health Board to provide an extension of interpreter services to local non-profits and social service providers.
''This will be an ongoing benefit to both our existing and future former refugee community.''
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Comments
Whilst I agree NZ should take refugees and understand the need for interpreters. But what is this 'we have already hired some cultural workers' When you say you have hired cultural workers I trust you mean New Zealanders (White and Maori Male and Female) to teach our new kiwis our way of life. I honestly I hope you don't mean Afgan cultural workers to express the afghan way of life in NZ. The employed Interpreters will be able advise any concerns they may have., Having lived in a Muslim country for 24 months I had to live their way and could not ever try and introduce any ideas of our way of living, When in Rome. Please don't say the DCC has employed Afgan cultural workers so the kiwi way of life can be changed.