KUALA LUMPUR: Nine women who were barred from entering New Zealand last month were stunned when they were allegedly linked to human trafficking there.

They now want the authorities in that country to clear their name from its blacklist, saying they did not want to go to New Zealand to either live or work there.

Relating events that led to the allegations against them, group spokesman Ng Pui Keng, 30, said they were going to board a flight from the low-cost carrier terminal to Christchurch on May 11 when they were barred from checking in.

“The officer told us they needed to contact the New Zealand immigration and that was when we found out we were blacklisted,” she told a press conference at the office of MCA public complaints and services department chairman Datuk Seri Michael Chong here yesterday.

Ng, a senior specialist for an insurance company, said even when they offered employment confirmation and the detailed itinerary of their planned trip, the immigration officers refused to accept it.

She said she and her eight travelling companions decided, instead, to fly to Taiwan the following day.

“However, we were shocked to later find out from friends that television news in New Zealand had reported that nine Malaysian women were linked to another woman there who was allegedly involved in people smuggling to New Zealand,” said Ng, whose group included her sister and their former schoolmates.

Chong said he would bring up the women’s plight with Wisma Putra.

He added that it was not right for the New Zealand authorities to unfairly penalise the women when they had not done anything wrong.

-The Star-