We did not stop a NZ resident from attending his mother’s funeral - Director of Immigration

The Director of Immigration has confirmed they did not stop a New Zealand resident from attending his mother’s funeral in Fiji last month.

Former Fiji resident Shailendra Raju says he was stopped by the Department of Immigration from attending his 70-year-old mother’s funeral who had passed away on the 26th of last month.

Raju says he had enquired with the Director of Immigration, Nemani Vuniwaqa about a stop departure against his name through his lawyer, Rajendra Chaudhry.

He says he was astounded to receive a reply from Vuniwaqa stating a stop departure was active against his name because of a 2005 divorce matter and a warrant issued in 2005.

Raju says that the divorce matter was settled in 2005.

He says he has also travelled to Fiji 14 times from 2009.

Raju says he plans to take legal action against the Prime Minister, the Attorney General and the Director of Immigration.

However Director of Immigration Nemani Vuniwaqa has told Fijivillage that when they verified the case, they came to know Raju’s name was on the Controversial List. He says they had also enquired with the High Court because it was a court order from 5th July, 2005.

He says the Controversial List is a database of what has been presented to the Department of Immigration by the respective courts for people to not be allowed to leave or enter the country for various reasons.

Vuniwaqa says for Raju to say he was stopped from coming to his mother’s funeral is absurd, because the Immigration Department did not say that.

He says they got confirmation from the High Court that the court order was still intact, and Vuniwaqa states that the order has not been revoked.

He says if Raju is claiming the case was dissolved in 2005, he needs to go to the High Court and get verification.

He says in their reply to Raju’s legal representative, Rajendra Chaudhry, they had advised that Raju could enter the country and there was nothing stopping him from attending his mother’s funeral but there might be problems in him leaving.

Vuniwaqa says for them to remove names from the Controversial List, it has to come in the court order, but with that being in place they would still have to stop Raju from leaving.