A Kurdish-Iranian refugee and award-winning writer who was held by Australia for years at a detention center on a remote Pacific island arrived in New Zealand late Thursday, after becoming a cause célèbre for rights activists.

The refugee, Behrouz Boochani, 35, who became a prominent voice for the hundreds of people exiled on Manus Island, Papua New Guinea, as part of Australia’s controversial detention program, received permission to leave for the first time in years.

The Australian government has paid neighboring countries to detain hundreds of asylum seekers and other refugees who arrive by sea. This is the first time Mr. Boochani has been granted permission to leave Papua New Guinea since his detention began in 2013, after he was given a visitor visa to enter New Zealand to speak at the WORD Christchurch literary festival on Nov. 29.

He was held in a detention center on Manus Island until it closed in 2017, and he was then moved to another part of Papua New Guinea. It is not clear what his status will be after the festival, although he has vowed never to return to Papua New Guinea.