Conservative American political commentator Candace Owens was denied a visa to enter New Zealand for an engagement because she was detained by another country, immigration officials said Thursday.
News of the decision came weeks after neighboring Australia also rejected her visa application, citing remarks in which she denied Nazi medical experimentation on Jews in concentration camps during World War II.
Owens is scheduled to speak at a series of events in several Australian cities and in Auckland, New Zealand, in February and March next year.
Tickets remain on sale and there is no acknowledgment on the promoter’s website that she has been refused entry to both venues.
The commentator, who has more than 3 million followers on YouTube, is accused by her critics of promoting conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism and has sparked a storm with her comments opposing Black Lives, Feminism, vaccines and immigration.
In March, Owens said she had parted ways with the Daily Wire, on which she had hosted an online talk show since 2021, after clashes with its founders over her comments about Jews and her opposition to military support for USA for Israel.
She was widely criticized for comments in a YouTube video in July that downplayed the Holocaust.
Owens had promised Australian and New Zealand audiences a discussion about free speech and her Christian faith when she announced the speaking tour in August.
But Australian officials banned her from the country in October, with Immigration Minister Tony Burke telling reporters Owens “has the capacity to stir up discord in almost any direction”, citing her remarks about the Holocaust and about Muslims.
“Australia’s national interest is best served when Candace Owens is elsewhere,” Burke said. Australian Jewish groups had urged officials to bar him from the country.
New Zealand officials did not refer to Owens’ political views in a statement Thursday.
She was refused an entertainer’s work permit for New Zealand on the grounds that visas cannot legally be granted to those who have been expelled from another country, said Jock Gilray, a spokesman for the immigration agency.
Australia-based promoter Rocksman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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