Posted on 07/14/2008 3:07:22 AM PDT by Coffee200am
More than 30 Indian youths have disappeared in New Zealand, where they were in transit to go to Sydney for World Youth Day, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Church said Monday.
Lyndsay Freear told Radio New Zealand that a party of 220 Indian Catholics who arrived in Auckland a week ago were due to fly to Sydney Tuesday, but 32 of them had disappeared.
All were billeted with church members in Auckland under a so-called Days in the Diocese programme before going to Australia, where Pope Benedict arrived Sunday for events associated with World Youth Day.
Freear said all the Indian pilgrims had been given 30-day visas when they arrived.
Their disappearance was "most extraordinary and most disappointing", she said.
She said the 32 who had disappeared from their billets did not have their passports with them and added, "We don't know whether this was planned or spontaneous."
She said that New Zealand immigration officials had been informed about their disappearance.
How were these Indian Catholics even able to leave the country, without passports?
Something is fishy here; the Indian government does not allow anyone to leave the country without an emigration check (as in, to see if they are wanted in any pending legal cases in India, arrest warrants on them, etc.), and the only certification for that is a page on the Indian passport, with the details.
Maybe some “long pork” celebrations going on in the interior?
I agree with you CarrotandStick, something seemed so out of sorts with this story that I searched for more news to see what other stories were out there.
Stumbled on another article that has a bit more info:
http://www.ndtv.com/convergence/ndtv/story.aspx?id=NEWEN20080057057&ch=7/14/2008%206:09:00%20PM
32 Indians absconding in New Zealand
"We have no reason to believe that they had any intention of disappearing once in New Zealand", the all-MENSA authorities will probably announce shortly...
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