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The Labour Department this morning said it is now searching for 35 Indian pilgrims who disappeared from their Auckland billets while visiting the country prior to Catholic World Youth Day in Sydney.
Meanwhile, the Indian agent who promised pilgrims they could stay in New Zealand sought up to $34,000 for his services, it was revealed.
New Zealand Sikh Society Auckland spokesman and Justice of the Peace Daljit Singh said today while the pilgrims were not members of the society, he had managed to make contact with two of them and a further three had been in contact with other members of the Indian community.
They told him an agent in India had organised all of their travel plans and visas.
The initial plan was for them to pay a deposit of $17,000 which would get them multiple visas for a month.
They were to travel to Auckland then on to Sydney before heading back to India with 15 days left on their visas.
The agent would then require another $17,000 before they travelled back to New Zealand - this time to stay as long as they wanted.
However, they discussed the plan on the plane while flying into Auckland and decided to make a change.
"They thought 'why can't we stay the first time rather than coming back and paying another fare?'," Mr Singh said.
"I tried to convince them yesterday they need to leave today to Sydney but they are telling us they came to stay here and the guy organising from India took their money and said 'you can stay (in New Zealand) forever'."
Mr Singh first heard of the scam when three of the pilgrims caught a taxi from Auckland to Tauranga.
"The driver was Indian. He's the one who first called me and told me what was happening because they told their story to him. So I told him to keep an eye on it, on where they are going. So I am in contact with the person in Tauranga to make sure they (stay) at his place."
Catholic Church spokeswoman Lyndsay Freer told Radio New Zealand the news was "shocking".
"As far as I know nobody in the church would have any inkling that anything like this was happening. "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."
New Zealand Catholic Parishes are hosting 4000 pilgrims prior to the Youth Day. Among them, 220 Indian worshippers were given one-month visitor visas earlier this month and were due to fly out today.
The pilgrims - up today from 32 to 35 - went missing at various times over the past four or five days.
The Labour Department said yesterday they were legally permitted to stay as long as their visas remained valid.
Mr Singh said he was in contact with the Labour Department and Immigration New Zealand and would help locate those who did not get on planes today.
"None of them are in our community but we have good contacts in New Zealand to find where people are."
- NZPA, NEWSTALK ZB
