‘Pilgrims missing in NZ part of scam’

MELBOURNE: The Indian pilgrims who have gone missing in New Zealand (NZ) are believed to be a part of an immigration scam.

Social organisation Auckland Justice of the Peace revealed few of them said they had paid 15,000 NZ dollars to “agents” back home who told them they could stay in New Zealand, the New Zealand Press Association reported on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Catholic church spokesperson Lyndsay Freer said nobody in the church had any inkling that anything like this was going to happen.

“It appears 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 host 4,000 pilgrims prior to the day and among them, 220 Indian worshippers were given month-long visitor visas earlier this month and were due to fly out on Tuesday.

The 32 pilgrims went missing in the past four to five days.

The labour department had said on Monday they were legally permitted to stay as long as their visas were valid. Officials from the department said they were searching for the 32 pilgrims who disappeared from their billets while staying in Auckland prior to Catholic World Youth Day in Sydney.