Crew Back In Germany After Deportation From New Zealand

Crew Back In Germany After Deportation From New Zealand
Crew Back In Germany After Deportation From New Zealand

Video: Crew Back In Germany After Deportation From New Zealand

Video: Crew Back In Germany After Deportation From New Zealand
Video: Why Is Australia Deporting So Many Kiwis? | Foreign Correspondent 2024, March
Anonim

Jakob Kraus and his crew knew that it would be a trip into the unknown when he left Papeete in Tahiti a few weeks ago. The fact that this trip across half the Pacific would end with imprisonment in New Zealand and deportation from the country is not.

As of today, Jakob Kraus, 30, girlfriend SophiUlbrich, 27, and boyfriend Hans Börner, 32, are back in Germany. Behind them lie not only 2000 nautical miles from Tahiti to New Zealand and a flight halfway around the world, but also days full of uncertainty that is far from over, as Kraus reports online in an interview with YACHT.

The young crew left Papeete in mid-September, heading for New Zealand. The hurricane season in the South Pacific is already approaching. Every year around this time, hundreds of yachts leave the islands of French Polynesia heading south to escape the path of the cyclones. New Zealand is then the destination of the sailors to spend the winter there and often also to do repair and refit work on the ships.

The plan of the "Anita" crew also provides for that. There are also flights to Germany. Jakob Kraus and his friends are on a circumnavigation of the world in stages. Again and again they fly home for a few months to work or to do important things.

But this year everything is different: The New Zealand health authorities have banned foreign yachts from entering the country since June 30th due to the corona pandemic. Only those who submit an application and receive a special permit to enter the country - perhaps for humanitarian reasons - are allowed into the country. Just worrying about the cyclone season and wanting to spend the winter in the country are not enough reasons for entering the country.

Jakob Kraus and his crew submit the exception request. Extensive work on the boat is planned in New Zealand, and contracts with shipyards have already been concluded. This is also one of the reasons that can be put forward for an entry request. The processing of the application should take 15 to 20 days, about as long as the passage with the "Anita" to New Zealand.

The time is running out and the crew is almost certain that they have put forward sufficient arguments to justify an exemption, they set sail. The contingency plan in case the application is not approved is to continue sailing to Fiji.

When New Zealand was still a good 48 hours ahead, the application was still not approved. The crew contacts the authorities on land - this is also possible from sea via the shortwave system on board. The request will be denied.

Almost half of the Pacific lies behind the "Anita", over 2000 nautical miles. A decision has to be made. Actually, the plan is now to turn to Fiji. But a storm is announced, and damage to the base of the mast became noticeable along the way, which could have major consequences. The "Anita" contacts the coast guard and heads for the Bay of Islands in the north of the North Island of New Zealand. At the moment, it seems difficult to imagine that this decision will ultimately lead to a hearing in court and even imprisonment in various New Zealand prisons.

But that's exactly what happens. The initial hope of being able to spend a 14-day quarantine on the jetty in the Marin will not come to anything. Instead, the sailors from Berlin are imprisoned in various prisons, up to and including the deportation flight via Singapore to Frankfurt am Main, where they arrived today.

What will become of the "Anita"? Jakob Kraus doesn't know yet. In the worst case, the ship will be seized, he currently fears. Friends in Tahiti have also offered to take the boat out of the country if that were possible again. Now the crew must first arrive back in Germany, process what they have experienced - and see what happens next.

Recommended: