Three more Indians ‘missing’, immigration scam suspected

An Indian taxi driver, while taking three of the men from Auckland to Tauranga, had spoken with them and informed the New Zealand Sikh Society about their plans to stay back in the country, media reports here said.

Society spokesman Daljit Singh contacted two pilgrims, who said an “agent” in India had organised their travel plans and visas. The initial plan was to pay a deposit of Australia $17,000 (US $ 12,900), which would get them multiple visas for a month.

Then they were to travel to Auckland on way to Sydney before heading back to India with 15 days left on their visas. The agent would then require another Australia $17,000 before they travelled back to New Zealand — this time to stay for as long as they wanted.

However, the pilgrims discussed the plan on board the plane and decided to change it. “They thought ‘why can’t we stay the first time rather than coming back and paying another fare?’,” Singh was quoted as saying, adding, “I tried to convince them yesterday that they need to leave for Sydney today but they told us that they have come to stay here and the guy organising from India took their money and said ‘you can stay (in New Zealand) forever’.”

The New Zealand Labour Department said once the plane had left the ground they would know how many, if any, had to be rounded up. However, it may not be possible to take immediate action as all were issued visitor permits which allow them to remain in the country, legally, until August 5 or 6.

“Their permits can only be revoked if they are found to be in breach of the conditions pertaining to those permits,” the Department said.

Catholic Church spokeswoman Lyndsay Freer said the church was working closely with the department. “As far as I know, nobody in the church would have any inkling that anything like this was happening. It appears that the World Youth Day has been used as an excuse and that is really quite alarming. One hopes it doesn’t reach a greater scale in Australia for example,” Freer was quoted as saying.

New Zealand Catholic parishes hosts 4000 pilgrims prior to the day and among them 220 Indian worshippers were given a month-long visitor visas earlier this month. New Zealand immigration officials were working closely with their counterparts in Australia on the matter.