Govt under fire for blocking cruise ship, but allowing The Wiggles
Minister Kris Faafoi. Photo / NZ Herald
Govt under fire for blocking cruise ship, but allowing The Wiggles
A cruise ship s hit an immigration storm after trying to sail into the country.
The Le Laperouse had been granted permission to operate sub Antarctic cruises with only New Zealand passengers and to have maintenance done.
But it s sitting 300 nautical miles off the New Zealand coast, after 61 of the 90 crew on board had their visas declined, twice.
Immigration says the 61, including hairdressers and bartenders, don t have good enough reason to be in New Zealand.
A travel company who has a charter cruise ship held off the New Zealand coast with most of the crew denied visas says the government has let it down.
The boat Le Laperouse was granted an exemption to come to New Zealand for cruise season, but the government says the owners were told the crew all needed to get individual visas to cross our closed borders.
Immigration NZ says the ship set sail from Jakarta just two days after filing applications for 90 foreign crew, but were told twice during the journey that 61 of the crew did not meet the criteria for critical workers and had been denied visas.
The New Zealand Cruise Association says it s usual practice for immigration authorities to process visas while cruise ships are en route to a country.
Most of the crew of Le Laperouse have been declined critical worker visas on two occasions.
Photo: Ponant
The cruise ship
Le Laperouse is just outside the country s exclusive economic zone, after most of its crew were twice declined critical worker visas.
Immigration New Zealand said the ship should have waited before setting sail from Jakarta just two days after filing applications for 90 foreign crew. The cruise company, Pontant, was told twice during the journey that 61 of the crew did not meet the criteria for critical workers and had been denied visas.
Press Release – NZ Cruise Association
The New Zealand Cruise Association is shocked and quite simply bewildered to see that at the very last minute Immigration NZ has chosen to prevent the Ponant ship Le Laperouse from coming to New Zealand despite having the green light from the Ministry of Health.The New Zealand Government (through the Ministry of Health) granted an exemption last December to permit the ship to operate domestically in New Zealand, carrying a maximum of 100 passengers.
At the extremely last minute, Immigration NZ has now denied entry for some of the ship’s crew who they have deemed to be non-essential. NZCA believes that all the ship’s crew are essential to its operation and they cannot be replaced by New Zealanders in such a short time.
Le Laperouse cruise ship: Applying for crew visas en route not unusual - NZ Cruise Association
29 Jan, 2021 09:49 PM
2 minutes to read
The New Zealand Cruise Association says it s usual practice for immigration authorities to process visas while cruise ships are en route to a country.
The cruise ship Le Laperouse is just outside New Zealands s exclusive economic zone, after most of its crew were twice declined critical worker visas.
Immigration New Zealand said the ship should have waited before setting sail from Jakarta just two days after filing applications for 90 foreign crew. The cruise company, Pontant, was told twice during the journey that 61 of the crew did not meet the criteria for critical workers and had been denied visas.