‘United Voice’, a group representing more than 160 organisations and nearly all ethnicities living in New Zealand, had a zoom meeting with Immigration Minister Michael Wood on Tuesday (September 6) to discuss various issues concerning the migrant community.
The meeting was convened by United Voice's convener Jeet Suchdev. It was attended by United Voice’s core team, including known community leaders such as Daljit Singh, Navtej Randhawa, Ghouse Majeed, Jaspreet Singh Kandhari and Gurdeep Talwar and Narinder Singh Wairaich, among others.
Giving details about the meeting, Daljit Singh of Supreme Sikh Society New Zealand told Indian Weekender, "We discussed important issues that concern our ethnic migrant wider community including what the government is doing about those migrants who got struck offshore during Covid as many of them have the skills needed in NZ. We also took up the issue of reopening of parents category. It has been more than six years since the category closed, so more delays are unacceptable to the migrant community. We asked the minister to open the category and consider having ten years of compulsory medical and life insurance.”
Suchdev revealed that the issue of one-off amnesty for the overstayers was also discussed. “We discussed many issues, and the minister assured us that he will be working through those soon. There are high hopes from Michael Wood as he is close to the migrant community. There should be no more delay from the government in resolving these key issues."
Gurdeep Talwar described the session with Michael wood as ‘Great’. “We had a great session with Immigration Minister Michael Wood on issues that our migrant and ethnic communities face. It was a very productive discussion, and we are confident the government and ministry will listen to the community and introduce policies which will work in favour of everyone," said Talwar.
Daljit said they had requested minister Wood to resolve these issues as a priority, and he is hopeful things will get sorted soon.