Between 30 and 50 people have been threatened with injury or death if they reveal they have been trafficked, First Union claims.
Victims of human trafficking and their families have been threatened with serious violence or even death if they reveal their plight to authorities in New Zealand, a major union has claimed.
First Union represents workers employed in a wide range of mostly blue-collar jobs, from forestry and manufacturing to bus and ambulance drivers. It didn’t specify the sector in which the affected workers were employed.
The victims were all Filipinos, according to Union General Secretary Dennis Maga, and had been lured to New Zealand by promises that proved to be “complete deception.”
Told jobs were waiting for them, the migrants were made to pay the traffickers for the opportunity. Once they handed over their money, they’re told not to disclose to anyone in New Zealand that they’ve been trafficked or else they, or they—or their family in the Philippines—will be harmed.
“Their family back home is being threatened; that’s our understanding. Not only the family, there’s also a threat that if they go back home, just at the airport, they could be killed from there,” Maga said.
The practice is becoming more widespread, with migrants from other Asian countries also being tricked into paying anything from $10,000 (US$5,300) to $20,000 for jobs in New Zealand that don’t exist.
Desperate and Destitute
“We are unearthing a lot of cases right now of a combination of migrant exploitation and elements of human trafficking,” Maga said. “I think some of these rogue employers became more sophisticated in the way they operate.
“Once [the migrants] arrive, it’s a different work arrangement for them. To the point that some of them are really desperate now, and some of them have suicidal tendencies because they sold their assets back home, and they thought that the job that had been promised to them was the job that they signed for in their country of origin.”
Some had sold all their assets in their home country to pay the traffickers and were left desperate and destitute.
“We’re still convincing these individuals to come forward and file a formal complaint. And the problem is that unions cannot really assure people’s safety back home, we can only assist them when they are in the country.”
Immigration New Zealand said it had opened 112 investigations in the past financial year where there were indications of people trafficking.
But Maga said some traffickers are situated overseas and know they are out of reach of arrest and prosecution in New Zealand. And he alleged some New Zealand employers were complicit in the practice.
“These rogue employers are now sophisticated in the way they operate, so it’s going to be hard for us to simply find out their wrongdoings if we focus on New Zealand. We need to investigate the supply chain. We need actually to find out those countries where they are sending these people [from],” he said.
Immigration New Zealand Compliance and Investigations General Manager Steve Watson said the tactics highlighted by the Union were commonly used by traffickers worldwide.
“[Such tactics] include false job ads, threats of violence, grooming, withholding of passports, and those threats of violence can also include threats to their families offshore and onshore,” he said.
“Also, threats to report them to Immigration New Zealand and have them deported if they complained or went to the authorities about the activities of the offenders. The number of exploitation cases has continued to rise steadily over the years. And many have indicators of trafficking or some of the elements of people trafficking.”
No Prosecutions, Despite Investigations
Of the 112 investigations into what were potentially people trafficking, none resulted in prosecutions for the offence. Less than half were still being analysed.
Of the 59 closed cases, 106 actions had been taken.
“These include 12 education packs provided to the employers, two formal warning letters given, and four instances where accreditation was suspended or revoked,” Watson said. “The rest are either referred to partner agencies since no immigration offence was found, or there was insufficient evidence.”
Some offenders were prosecuted on non-trafficking charges because complaints did not meet the legal threshold for trafficking or victims did not want to engage in a criminal court process. Victims can be referred to the police for verification, entitling them to a visa and access to other government services.
The 2024 United States Trafficking in Persons Report ranked New Zealand at Tier 2, meaning it was not fully compliant with the U.S. Trafficking Victims Protection Act, but was making significant efforts to do so.
The report said the NZ government initiated fewer trafficking investigations and, for the fourth consecutive year, did not prosecute or convict anyone for labour trafficking crimes.
Maga said he hoped the government will investigate the newly reported trafficking cases, and take action on legislation to deal with modern slavery, similar to that which has already been adopted in many migrant destination countries.
The laws usually allow regulators and prosecutors to hold employers responsible for migrant labour hire in their business and subcontractors.
“I think in the absence of legislation like modern slavery, it’s going to be hard for us to stamp out this problem,” Maga said.
The Labour government drafted legislation in 2023, but the Coalition announced the legislation was not a priority this year.
Walk Free estimated that, in 2016, there were around 3,000 people in New Zealand in conditions constituting modern slavery.