N Zealand govt says it has lost track of 33 Indian pilgrims

Melbourne, Oct 3 (PTI) New Zealand authorities have lost track of 33 Indians, who claimed they were victims of an immigration scam after arriving here in July as pilgrims to attend the Pope's Youth Day rally in Sydney.

Seven immigrants from the group of 40 have been deported,
a New Zealand Labour Department spokesperson said Thursday.

Forty pilgrims, part of a wider group of over 200 people,
disappeared last month while on stopovers in New Zealand
before flying to Sydney to take part in the Pope's World Youth
Day rally.

They had, earlier, claimed that they paid upto USD 13,000
to an agent in India who organised their travel visas and told
them they could stay in New Zealand "forever".

Instead, the group was only issued one-month visitor's
visas, after the expiry of which, 36 members still remained in
the country.

Of the group, 12 had applied for students' permits, but
all had been turned down, the spokesman was quoted by New
Zealand Herald as saying.

The daily said that in August, the department claimed it
knew about the where-abouts of 20 of the group and was looking
for the remaining 16.

But Friday the spokesman said the number of missing
pilgrims had risen to 33. "We're keeping an eye out for
(them). When we locate them, we will remove them." he said.

Of those deported, six came forward while the department
tracked one down.

The department spokesman said that officials were
continuing to gather information about alleged fraud and would
eventually decide whether to pass it on to Indian authorities.