New Zealand Sikh MP gets clean chit in immigration scam

September 22nd, 2009 LAHORE - Over 350 Indian Sikh pilgrims, in Pakistan to attend the death anniversary of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, have urged New Delhi and Islamabad to allow pilgrims to travel without visas. The Sikhs, travelling under the aegis of the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee, arrived here Monday and would be visiting Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib situated in Narowal district of Pakistan.

September 22nd, 2009 LAHORE - A group of 379 Sikh devotees from India have arrived here for ceremonies to mark the 470th death anniversary of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism, the world's youngest religion. The 'jatha', under the aegis of Sikh apex body Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandak Committee (SGPC), will visit Gurdwara Kartarpur Sahib situated in Narowal district of Pakistan's Punjab province, Geo TV reported.

August 25th, 2009 IPOH - Perak Menteri Besar Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir met 17 poor Sikh families after he promised to help the community financially. The families from in and around the state capital are among the more than 350 Sikh poor and hardcore poor in the state identified by the Union of Perak Sikh Organisations (Upso) through the Sikh Single Mothers Association (Sikhmai).

August 13th, 2009 IPOH - Malaysia's Sikh community may be small in number, but its contributions to the development of Perak and the nation as a whole have been invaluable. Menteri Besar Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir said the community should continue with its contributions and remain united to face local and global challenges, as well as work with the government to improve its lot.

July 4th, 2009 LAHORE - A travel agency scam has stranded as many as 800 Pakistani pilgrims in Saudi Arabia after their travel agents refunded their tickets in Pakistan. The Daily Times quoted one pilgrim, as saying that his visa for staying in Saudi Arabia would expire in a couple of days.

June 23rd, 2009 IPOH - Malaysian Sikh community leaders have said that one in every 20 Sikhs living in Perak is a hardcore poor. The Sikh community's hardcore poor numbers around 1,500, constituting about 400 families, or five per cent of the total 28,000 Sikhs in the state.

June 3rd, 2009 WELLINGTON - Indian students based in Australia may opt to go to neighbouring New Zealand if the racially motivated attacks Down Under don't stop. Education New Zealand chief executive Robert Stevens said he had been in touch with the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise office in India yesterday, urging the office to market New Zealand and Australia as "totally different societies".

May 26th, 2009 LONDON - A Sikh group from Slough has written to Queen Elizabeth requesting her to return property and items belonging to the family of Punjab's last king Ranjit Singh. The Telegraph quoted Jagdeesh Singh, from the Sikh Community Action Network, as saying: "We have written to the Queen asking for access rights and the eventual return of items such as historic copies of the Sikh national sacred writings, together with swords and weapons of the Sikh gurus." According to Singh, letters, diaries and writings of Maharaja Duleep Singh, the Sikh ruler exiled to Britain in the 19th century, are also part of the collection, some of which is housed at Windsor Castle.

May 21st, 2009 LONDON - After the arrest of 11 Pakistan students for allegedly plotting terror attacks in Britain, it was revealed that those students had entered Britain on false student visas, but it seems that it was only a part of a larger conspiracy, as it has now been revealed that thousands of young Pakistan civilians had exploited a hole in Britain's immigration defences to enroll themselves as students at a network of fraud colleges. The Times has unearthed a major scam in which fraudsters have earned millions of dollars by luring students from Pakistan to get admission in sham colleges in Britain.

May 7th, 2009 LONDON - Three Indian illegal immigrants are reported to be behind the biggest visa scam in British history. According to The Telegraph, they were so confident of fooling the Home Office that one of them offered their services on a no win, no fee basis, a court has heard.

March 28th, 2009 WELLINGTON - An illegal Indian immigrant in New Zealand for the last 23 years has been reunited with his wife and son after finally getting permission to stay, a newspaper reported Saturday. 'I thought I would be going to my grave without ever seeing them again,' Abdul Jalil Patel, 58, told the New Zealand Herald as his wife Amina, 55, and son Salman, 24, flew into Auckland airport Friday.

March 16th, 2009 WELLINGTON - New Zealand is not likely to follow Australia in cutting immigration to protect local jobs during the current recession, Prime Minister John Key indicated Monday. 'New Zealand needs skilled migrants to grow,' he said under questioning at his weekly news conference.

March 14th, 2009 AUCKLAND - The New Zealand cricket team will focus on avoiding a clean sweep against their Indian counterparts on Saturday, when they meet up for the fifth and final one-day international here. New Zealand's euphoria after their two Twenty20 victories against India has been punctured.

February 27th, 2009 WELLINGTON - New Zealand defeated India by five wickets in the second and last Twenty20 international at the Westpac Stadium here Friday. New Zealand achieved the 150-run target in the last ball with another sterling display from Brendon McCullum, who remained unbeaten on 69.

February 15th, 2009 WELLINGTON - An Iranian man who went on a hunger strike for 53 days in a New Zealand prison to highlight his request for asylum was given permission Monday to stay in the country after his third appeal, news reports said. Ali Reza Panah, who claimed he would be executed for converting from Islam to Christianity if sent back to Iran, was held in jail for 20 months for refusing to sign the travel papers he needed before he could be deported.