Three Malaysian cooks may make a complaint to their government about being strip searched and refused entry to New Zealand last month, a Malaysian official said today.
"They have request(ed) me to assist them to write to our foreign minister," government official Betty Chew told National Radio.
But New Zealand Customs andImmigration officials say there were good reasons to search the trio at Auckland Airport and refuse them entry.
The Malaysian High Commission in Wellington has contacted the Government over the incident, a Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry spokeswoman said yesterday .
However, she was unable to say whether it was an apology or clarification that had been sought.
Customs Service spokeswoman Janice Rodenburg said Customs officers had "good reason" for the search. Customs referred them to Immigration officials who made the decision to forbid them entry.
Immigration spokesman Brett Solvander said after investigation, officials believed the men were not going to comply with the conditions of their visitors' permits.
"We picked up the game and started to interview them, which is quite an extensive process, and on the basis of those wide-ranging interviews, officials decided they were not bona fide and denied them entry.
"This is not a decision that is formed lightly."
People on visitors' permits could be refused entry if, for instance, they were carrying the tools of their trade, he said.
"For example, a carpenter who claims to be coming to New Zealand on holiday but has a suitcase full of tools may be regarded with suspicion."
The men say that on arriving on July 19 for a 10-day visit, they were locked up overnight and deported the next day.
Agence France Presse (AFP) news agency has reported that Liew Eng Teck told Malaysia's official Bernama news agency he and friends Tan Teck Hing and How Ah Wan had written to Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar about the incident and wanted an apology from New Zealand.
A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said his office would not comment on the matter and it was an issue for Customs and Immigration to deal with.
