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A New Zealand resident who sent $5000 to his ill uncle in India had the money frozen for nearly a month because his name matched that of several men on a terrorist watch list.

When Mohammad Abbas’ uncle desperately needed a kidney transplant, the Mt Roskill resident quickly sent money for the operation through Western Union to India.

But Western Union held it, waiting for confirmation that Mr Abbas was not a terrorist.

“Is my religion, the fact that I’m Muslim, and my name a reason to be discriminated against?” said Mr Abbas, a native South African who became a permanent New Zealand resident early last year.

The 22-year-old TelstraClear employee said it took a few days before Western Union – an American money-transfer company – gave him a vague explanation of why his money was being held.

Meanwhile, his dying uncle, on holiday in India from his home in South Africa, waited in a hospital.

Mr Abbas said Western Union told him his money was being investigated by the company’s legal team in the United States, and he would have to wait.

“It was a life-or-death situation,” Mr Abbas said. “They did not care.”

On Friday, a month after Mr Abbas tried to transfer the money, he got it back with the help of his MP, Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff.

Tip: avoid US companies when whatever you’re doing doesn’t involve the USA.