Australian far-right figure Avi Yemini was not allowed to board a flight to New Zealand to cover the country’s conspiracy protests because of his criminal record, immigration officials said.
Immigration New Zealand’s acting general manager for border and visa operations Michael Carley told Crikey Yemini was denied entry on character grounds yesterday.
“We can confirm that Mr Avi Yemini was denied boarding his flight from Australia to New Zealand as he did not meet the immigration requirements due to his criminal conviction,” Carley said in a statement.
Yemini pled guilty to unlawful assault and two other charges in 2019, the Herald Sun reported, admitting in court that he threw a chopping board that hit his ex-wife in the head.
Carley’s explanation contradicts Yemini’s claims that he was rejected because of the NZ Herald’s reporting in which Yemini and Rukshan Fernando — a fellow content creator popular with Australia’s freedom and anti-vaccine movements — were called “Australian conspiracy commentators” who planned to attend anti-government protests today.
“I was told I was not being allowed to board a flight to enter New Zealand because they’d read an article about me online that made them come to the conclusion that, as an Australian citizen, I am not of good character to enter New Zealand today,” Yemini said in a YouTube video.
Despite Fernando receiving the same treatment from the NZ Herald, the wedding photographer turned anti-lockdown content creator was able to board a flight and cover the protest.
Yemini works for the alt-right Canadian media company Rebel News and was banned from Facebook because of repeated examples of hate speech. Earlier this year he sought to reveal the identity of high-profile online anonymous commentator PRGuy17.
Beyond creating sensationalist videos on topics such as Australia’s anti-lockdown protests, Yemini commonly capitalises on conflict with institutions and media to seek donations for legal challenges. This has included promising to challenge Victoria’s pandemic laws, for denying him access to Premier Dan Andrews’ press conferences, and to force Twitter to reveal PRGuy17’s identity.
