Indian woman in New Zealand faces deportation after losing $33K to scamsters

Wellington, Sep 20 (IANS) An Indian woman is facing deportation in New Zealand after being duped by men who she says took more than $30,000 from her in return for work visas for jobs that did not exist.

Damanpreet Kaur told Radio New Zealand (RNZ) that she paid two Tauranga men over $18,000 for a work visa and job last year and later paid a Hamilton man $15,000 for the same.

In both cases, Kaur said she received a two-year work visa that restricted her to employment by the company named on the visa, but found there was no job, according to the report on Thursday.

The woman said she wanted justice served on the men and had already provided immigration authorities details of her claims in the hope that it will allow her to stay in the country.

Her immigration adviser, Tuariki Delamere, urged the New Zealand government to crack down on the group, who he described as “parasites”.

RNZ said that it first interviewed Kaur about her situation in February and though she shared secret recordings of the men who scammed her she was not ready to go public that time.

Now she has sent the Associate Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi a statement detailing the allegations, as well as bank statements showing payments to the two Tauranga men and to a company where the Hamilton man was a director, as well as cash withdrawals she said were later given to the men.

The Tauranga men denied the allegations while the Hamilton man didn’t return phone calls, according to RNZ.

Kaur said immigration officials had told her she could be served with a deportation notice because she was not working for the company specified on her current two-year work visa.

She said she was surviving by depending on money from her parents in India and support from her friends in New Zealand, but her parents would not support her if she returned to India.

Kaur admitted to have broken immigration rules by paying for a job, but said she found it too hard to find work in the field that she had studied. “It’s my mistake, I apologize… But I need one last chance from immigration.”