An overseas student has been denied entry into New Zealand after failing to declare meat and fish he was carrying in his travel baggage to Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) officials at Auckland airport.
The student denied carrying any biosecurity risk goods when questioned by a quarantine inspector, but a baggage x-ray machine showed otherwise.
Upon checking the baggage, officials found fish, beef, duck, chicken and fish roe.
“These items were spread loosely throughout his luggage. When questioned, the student admitted he had not declared the items as he did not want them seized. He also falsely declared that a duck product was seafood in order to retain it,” says MPI Team Leader Brett Hickman.
“All of these products posed biosecurity risk to New Zealand’s primary industries and native wildlife.”
“This breach of the Biosecurity Act was serious enough for Immigration officials to deny him entry into New Zealand.”
The student had arrived from China on a two-year work visa to undertake post doctoral studies at a New Zealand University.
