A common theme across Canada\u2019s well-documented struggle with India-linked crime is the use (and abuse) of temporary visas. <\/p>\n
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the welcoming ceremony for him at Government House on July 11 in Auckland. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n
In a special bulletin released in April, Canada\u2019s financial intelligence agency described sustained campaigns of extortion, focused on the local South Asian population there, by India-linked crime groups and possible local copycat actors. <\/p>\n
\u201cThese groups appear to recruit or rely on individuals already living in Canada to act as financial intermediaries (\u201cmoney mules\u201d), enforcers, or \u201cfoot soldiers\u201d, typically financially vulnerable, young male Indian nationals in Canada on study permits,\u201d the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada warned. <\/p>\n
The misuse of student visas and post-graduate visas by the India-linked gangs has also been described by various Canadian police forces. <\/p>\n
The likely benefits<\/a> of New Zealand\u2019s freer trade with India, and its population of 1.5 billion, have been well aired.<\/p>\n The FTA is expected to come into force later this year and will increase goods<\/a> and container traffic between the two countries, ease customs processes and likely travel<\/a>, and entrench and extend New Zealand student and post-graduate visa availability for Indian nationals. <\/p>\n The question is, will that make New Zealand\u2019s systems vulnerable to abuse? <\/p>\n Alexander Gillespie, Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Waikato, doesn\u2019t think so. <\/p>\n \u201cPeople are right to be concerned about organised crime … it\u2019s is getting bigger, more complicated, more integrated and it\u2019s coming towards countries like New Zealand with greater speed than ever before. But whether there\u2019s an FTA in there won\u2019t particularly change that … and the more our police forces can co-operate with one another the better that will be. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d be cautious about talking about a particular ethnic group as being a risk. Criminals by nature are going to go outside the lawful process, and so because you\u2019ve got more people coming from one particular country doesn\u2019t mean that you want to associate those people with being criminals. Because 99.9% of them aren\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n On the other hand, Gillispie said the FTA will act as a gateway to closer work in other areas that does require caution: \u201cthis is going to involve more than just kiwifruit\u201d. <\/p>\n During Modi\u2019s visit, a joint India-New Zealand statement reaffirmed both parties\u2019 commitment to stronger co-operation in areas including security, counter-terrorism, law enforcement and defence. <\/p>\n These developments have been broadly welcomed by New Zealand\u2019s Indian diaspora, numbering some 300,000. But minority groups, especially Sikhs, are wary of Modi\u2019s BJP party and its brand of Hindu nationalism.<\/p>\n \u201cIndia is a democracy but there is a lack of dissent and human rights in India right now, that\u2019s a concern. Their potential links to assassinations or acts which are violations of human rights, in that regard we should be vigilant … New Zealand values dissent and the right to dissent. So the question is, how close do you want to get to countries that don\u2019t have the same values as yours?\u201d Gillispie said.<\/p>\n That question is currently at the fore for Canadians. <\/p>\n Among the crimes alleged in the FBI-led indictments made public earlier this month is the 2023 assassination of the Sikh nationalist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar<\/a>, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. <\/p>\n The indictments allege the murder was ordered by India\u2019s Bishnoi gang leader Lawrence Bishnoi, from his jail cell in India. <\/p>\n But that now overlays Canadian claims \u2013 made by previous Prime Minister Justin Trudeau \u2013 of \u201ccredible allegations\u201d that the Indian state was linked to the murder. It\u2019s a view that was subsequently reinforced by a leaked Royal Canadian Mounted Police report. <\/p>\n Nijjar was labelled a terrorist by India in 2020, during Modi\u2019s second term as Indian Prime Minister.<\/p>\n \u201cThis [US] investigation could certainly get uncomfortable. There hasn\u2019t been a mention so far of Indian state involvement. But will the Indian authorities co-operate? Will there be extraditions from India?\u201d Robert Huish, associate dean of research at Dalhousie University in Canada and an expert on foreign interference, told the Herald. <\/p>\nSeveral protest organisations faced off with supporters during a public event for Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Auckland on July 11. Photo \/ Dean Purcell<\/p>\n