Hyderabad: Students from Hyderabad and Punjab who are facing deportation from New Zealand, just lost their final battle to continue to stay in the country.
Some of these students are planning to seek sanctuary in the Catholic Church at Auckland, which has been supporting their agitation. Out of 150 students, nine of them lost their attempt to stay on, including those from Hyderabad. The case pertains to organised financial document fraud involving Hyderabad-based agents and students according to Immigration NZ.
DC had reported that the students were facing deportation as they produced fake documents, including their bank financial support papers.
New Zealand not giving any option: Students
According to Ms Anu Kaloti of Migrant Workers’ Association of Aotearoa, quoting NZ Radio, said that the group of students had appealed to the minister of business, innovation and employment to intervene in their deportation, but their plea was rejected.
New Zealand media quoted Narra Manoj from Hyderabad saying that the authorities are not giving any options. Manoj said, “We are hurt. There are several other students apart from me. We have borrowed huge sums of money to come to New Zealand for our education. We knew nothing about fraudulent documents given by agents,”
Immigration New Zealand said the visa rejection rate and the number of students being deported were the highest among Indians. Hyderabad topped the list among Indians.
An investigation report of NZ Immigration regarding Hyderabad consultants said “...the fraud appears to have exploited the fact that education loan documents are normally verified at sanction stage but not at disbursal stage, therefore creating an unguarded stage in the visa process which these agents have noticed and exploited.
“Immigration NZ Mumbai area office's latest report says the number of fraud cases in 2016 is 640 involving 300 agents. The scam initially pertaining to fraudulent education loans has now expanded with new frauds like fraudulent work experience and fake degree certificates being found.”
