Monday, July 21, 2008

Dept of Labour speaks to half of missing pilgrims

The Department of Labour has spoken to half the Indian pilgrims who went missing in New Zealand while supposedly en route to World Youth Day in Sydney.

It was originally believed 39 had gone missing but that increased to 40 on Friday when it was discovered a man travelling alone had not left New Zealand when scheduled.

The 40 were from a group of 220 pilgrims visiting New Zealand before attending World Youth Day.

A Department of Labour spokesman said it had spoken to 20 of the pilgrims asking about the circumstances of their visit and reminding them of the conditions of their visitor permits.

Two men will leave Auckland Airport tonight and make their way back to India.

The men, aged 18 and 20, were leaving voluntarily rather than being deported, which meant they would be able to travel to New Zealand in future.

The men returned to the Auckland Catholic family they were staying with on Saturday and the family contacted the Immigration Service, who visited the house.

Immigration officials were "satisfied that the pair are genuine Catholics and had not paid money to anyone to facilitate their travel to New Zealand".

The group were believed to have paid $17,000 each to an agent in India who organised their travel visas and told them they could stay in New Zealand "forever".

Catholic church members billeted many of the 220 Indians who stopped off in New Zealand. Over a week ago they began disappearing -- walking out of their hosts' homes, some offering excuses, most leaving their luggage behind.

The officials who interviewed the two men scheduled to leave tonight said they stayed because they were "caught up in the excitement of it all".

They agreed to return to India, but were allowed to stay to watch television coverage of the Pope's mass from Sydney which was shown at a church in Auckland earlier today.

The spokesman said all 20 pilgrims spoken to had "made allegations of fraud involving people in India".

However, he would not comment on the allegations as it could prejudice inquiries.

The Indian community, Indian High Commission and Catholic Church have been working with immigration officials to locate the remaining missing pilgrims.

Remaining pilgrims were advised to "immediately begin preparations to depart New Zealand voluntarily".

"Failing to do so would most likely result in their visas being revoked, and removal action taken against them, with long-term consequences arising from the latter if they ever sought to make any immigration application involving New Zealand," the spokesman said.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce