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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.
LAWRENCE SMITH/Stuff
The Le Laperouse cruise ship docks down on Auckland s Queens Wharf during the Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020.
One cruise ship will call at Timaru this summer –with New Zealand passengers only. New Zealand Cruise Association chief executive Kevin O’Sullivan confirmed that the Le Laperouse, owned by French company Ponant Cruises, will call at Timaru on February 28. There would be 100 New Zealand passengers only on board because of Covid-19 restrictions, which was fewer than the ship’s capacity for up to 264 passengers. Permission for the cruises was granted by the Government in late 2020. “Timaru is one of the fortunate ones,” O’Sullivan said.