Migrant gets second chance
A government minister has given a twice-scammed migrant a second chance.
Damanpreet Kaur was the victim of two groups of immigration scammers and faced deportation but has earned a reprieve from Associate Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi after Stuff investigated her case.
Kaur said she was ‘‘always scared’’ of being sent home but now ‘‘thanks God’’ and Stuff for the opportunity to stay. In a letter Kaur received on Tuesday, Faafoi said he was making an exception by giving her a six-month open visa to stay with the aim of securing a longer-term visa.
Kaur’s immigration adviser, Tuariki Delamere, said he’d spoken to Immigration officials who said they wanted Kaur’s help to investigate the two scams revealed by Stuff.
‘‘They are assessing [this case],’’ Delamere said. ‘‘They don’t have the ability to investigate everything that comes to them but if she’s not here, they have no chance of prosecuting – and she has a lot of evidence.
‘‘While some people may feel aggrieved that she’s been given a second chance, I think the greater good is if we can squash these employers [who run the scams].’’
Stuff’s investigation, The Big Scam, has uncovered a network of questionable visa schemes which charge desperate migrants huge sums.
Kaur alleged she paid a group of Punjabi Indians in Tauranga to secure her a work visa for a job.
Businessman Jagadjeet Singh admitted taking $4500 from Kaur but said it was a loan that he repaid, not a charge for what Kaur said was a fake job.
Kaur secured a work visa as an IT helpdesk operative for an internet cafe owned by Jagadjeet in Merivale – but discovered the net cafe was a handful of old PCs at the back of a barber shop and there was no work for her.
She also provided recordings of conversations with a man she claimed was Myles Watene, a director of Hamilton company Whairepo Developments, in which she said she was paying for a job. She secured a new work visa to work for Whairepo but said that too was a fake job and she never worked for the company. Delamere said Damanpreet was ‘‘a lucky girl – this is a good result for her’’.
In his letter, Faafoi said his decision to allow Kaur to stay was an exception, and ‘‘based on the information provided to me’’.
Kaur said she didn’t know what the Government would require of her over the next few months but wanted to use her extended stay in the country to find a job in her field.