Police Abruptly Deport Indian

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31107, 9 July 1966, Page 16

Police Abruptly Deport Indian

Because of a police oversight, a 27-year-old Indian metal-worker, John Persad, of 16 Boon street, was whisked away from his work and deported to Fiji without being able to say goodbye to his wife.

Mr Persad came to New {Zealand from Fiji in 1964, on a three-month work permit. In March, 1965, a warrant was } issued for his arrest as a prohibited immigrant On March 15, this year, he married. He was arrested on March 24, charged, fined £l5. and ordered to be deported. He was ordered to report to the Christchurch police daily. Rushed To Flat

Mr Persad was taken into custody at his work about 9 a.m. on Thursday, and the police rushed him to his flat to get packed. He was to go on an aircraft scheduled to leave Christchurch for Auckland before 10 a.m. He telephoned his wife at her place of work. She was unable to get to the Christchurch airport before the aircraft left for Auckland, although it had been delayed by fog. The Auckland police lodged Mr Persad in a cell at the Otahuhu police station until his aircraft for Fiji was about to leave.

Superintendent C. L. Scanlan, head of the uniform branch of the Christchurch police, said that the abruptness of Mr Persad’s departure was because of an oversight.

Mr Persad was to have been taken into custody when he reported on Wednesday evening. He was not detained, and the oversight was not discovered until 8.30 a.m. on Thursday, about an hour before the aircraft was due to leave.

“I have never known anything like this to happen before, and I sincerely trust it will not happen again.” Superintendent Scanlan said. “It was not done intentionally and, naturally, we do not feel too good about it.” Mrs Persad, a New Zealander, aged 20, is pregnant She does not intend to follow her husband to Fiji, as he will apply for a re-entry permit to New Zealand.