Does the government have a plan to reopen travel with India?
Thousands of Kiwi-Indian New Zealand residents are facing the brunt of New Zealand’s confounding blanket travel ban from India.
In some cases, these are residents who have been staying in New Zealand for over 10 years and have been caught out by this sudden and unexpected draconian measure.
The irony is, these New Zealand residents can still travel to New Zealand, but via places like Serbia, Maldives and so on, spending up to $5000 for their 14-day mandatory stopover, before they can catch the onward flight to Auckland.
This exercise gets further complicated when you overlay it with the requirements of the now infamous, lottery-style MIQ system.
All this is causing immense stress on individuals and families, and cocks a snook at the “be kind” phrase being peddled by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Meanwhile, India is making giant strides in its fight against Covid. After the brutal second wave that swept the country, India has some globally leading statistics in vaccination and has spread seemingly under control.
The national capital Delhi recorded zero deaths due to Covid-19 and 39 fresh cases on Friday with a positivity rate of 0.06 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.
Only five Covid-related deaths were reported last month, one each on September 7, 16 and 17, and two on September 28, according to official figures.
One fatality due to the infection has been recorded so far this month in Delhi on October 2, according to official data.
Active Covid cases in Delhi stand at 383.
Some of the above statistics are either similar to Auckland or the total active case load number of Delhi is even somehow better than Auckland, which recorded 60 cases as of today the 10th of October 2021.
With the above facts, many affected Kiwi Indians term the blanket ban as discriminatory and demanded that the Jacinda Ardern led Labour government address this issue, affecting real people and real lives.
In a recent online Q&A hosted by the Indian Weekender with the Indian High Commissioner, many affected Kiwi Indians aggressively questioned him, if the The Indian government is doing enough to convince the New Zealand government to end this alleged discrimination.
It is pertinent to mention that countries like the UK, the USA, Canada and even Australia have either opened their borders with India or are doing so very shortly.
Fully vaccinated passengers from India are no longer required to quarantine on landing in the UK.
It has been nearly two years and this travel ban has ripped apart families and loved ones.
It is high time the government thinks innovatively, and thus gets its act together around border management and MIQ.
It is high time that New Zealand opens its borders with India and removes it from the “high risk” or “red zone” classification, a stance that is harder to justify with each passing day.
Thousands of Kiwi-Indian New Zealand residents are facing the brunt of New Zealand’s confounding blanket travel ban from India.
In some cases, these are residents who have been staying in New Zealand for over 10 years and have been caught out by this sudden and unexpected draconian measure.
The...
Thousands of Kiwi-Indian New Zealand residents are facing the brunt of New Zealand’s confounding blanket travel ban from India.
In some cases, these are residents who have been staying in New Zealand for over 10 years and have been caught out by this sudden and unexpected draconian measure.
The irony is, these New Zealand residents can still travel to New Zealand, but via places like Serbia, Maldives and so on, spending up to $5000 for their 14-day mandatory stopover, before they can catch the onward flight to Auckland.
This exercise gets further complicated when you overlay it with the requirements of the now infamous, lottery-style MIQ system.
All this is causing immense stress on individuals and families, and cocks a snook at the “be kind” phrase being peddled by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
Meanwhile, India is making giant strides in its fight against Covid. After the brutal second wave that swept the country, India has some globally leading statistics in vaccination and has spread seemingly under control.
The national capital Delhi recorded zero deaths due to Covid-19 and 39 fresh cases on Friday with a positivity rate of 0.06 per cent, according to data shared by the city health department.
Only five Covid-related deaths were reported last month, one each on September 7, 16 and 17, and two on September 28, according to official figures.
One fatality due to the infection has been recorded so far this month in Delhi on October 2, according to official data.
Active Covid cases in Delhi stand at 383.
Some of the above statistics are either similar to Auckland or the total active case load number of Delhi is even somehow better than Auckland, which recorded 60 cases as of today the 10th of October 2021.
With the above facts, many affected Kiwi Indians term the blanket ban as discriminatory and demanded that the Jacinda Ardern led Labour government address this issue, affecting real people and real lives.
In a recent online Q&A hosted by the Indian Weekender with the Indian High Commissioner, many affected Kiwi Indians aggressively questioned him, if the The Indian government is doing enough to convince the New Zealand government to end this alleged discrimination.
It is pertinent to mention that countries like the UK, the USA, Canada and even Australia have either opened their borders with India or are doing so very shortly.
Fully vaccinated passengers from India are no longer required to quarantine on landing in the UK.
It has been nearly two years and this travel ban has ripped apart families and loved ones.
It is high time the government thinks innovatively, and thus gets its act together around border management and MIQ.
It is high time that New Zealand opens its borders with India and removes it from the “high risk” or “red zone” classification, a stance that is harder to justify with each passing day.
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