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A ministerial advisory group has linked migrant exploitation in New Zealand to organised crime.
Calling migrant exploitation an "emerging challenge", the advisory group on transnational and serious organised crime argued for coordinated offshore and onshore prevention measures to be implemented.
In a scathing assessment of how widespread migrant exploitation is in New Zealand, the advisory group noted in its June report that one "can't live in New Zealand without buying products or using services that contribute to migrant exploitation".
Such instances were increasing, it said.
"Last year, MBIE (Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment) received nearly four times the number of migrant exploitation complaints compared with the previous year - 933 and 3925 respectively," the group said.
"Most of these reported violations relate to pay and conditions, rather than criminal exploitation.
"It is, however, highly likely that serious criminal exploitation, such as people trafficking, forced labour and sexual exploitation, is under-reported and growing within New Zealand.
"There are almost certainly exploited migrants in our horticulture, construction, beauty services and hospitality sectors."
Money laundering
Arguing that "cash is critical to the criminal economy ... for avoiding monitoring and detection by regulatory agencies and financial institutions", the advisory group noted how cash enabled crime associated with migrant exploitation.
"Aside from the direct benefits from underpayment to workers, organised crime groups also take advantage of murky subcontracting arrangements and shell companies to launder the profits from other criminal activities by swapping 'dirty' cash (which is paid to migrant labour) with the 'clean' money paid by the customer," the advisory group said.
"That is why ... we [recommend] mandating the electronic payment of wages - starting with industries at high risk of migrant exploitation such as construction, hospitality and horticulture."
In its June report, the advisory group proposed a slew of measures to prevent migrant exploitation in New Zealand.
"Migrant exploitation, in particular, requires coordinated offshore and onshore prevention, stronger regulatory oversight and corporate accountability, along with community engagement to detect and disrupt exploitation networks," the group said.
"People should be educated to spot concerning business practices that might involve situations of exploitation of migrant workers."
Offshore prevention
For offshore prevention, the group recommended enhanced offshore screening processes to prevent exploitation before individuals arrived in New Zealand.
"This will also require diplomatic engagement with embassies and high commissioners in New Zealand to understand what is being done and what can be done offshore to facilitate preventive measures in migrants' countries of origin," the group said.
"In many cases ... migrants are willing to use people smugglers to gain faster entry to New Zealand, rather than going through legitimate routes. This means they become complicit in the offence and have limited ability to complain.
"There needs to be more effective screening of visa applicants to prevent people from travelling to New Zealand unlawfully. This should focus on determining eligibility of individuals, as well as determining whether there is an actual employment need."
The ministerial advisory group called on the government to clarify mandates between MBIE and the police for taking the lead on human trafficking offences to improve effectiveness of responses.
Onshore challenges
Recognising the challenges in reducing the influx of illegal migrants from offshore, the advisory group said it was important to reduce the capacity of organised crime groups to exploit migrants in New Zealand.
"[This] requires both a strong and effective immigration system to detect invalid visas and to prosecute non-compliant employers, and community support to identify instances of exploitation occurring within the community," the group said.
Furthermore, the group recommended high-risk industries to actively identify, prevent, mitigate and account for the integrity of their supply chains.
"This would set an obligation on businesses to proactively manage migrant exploitation risks that would be subject to legal liability and regulatory enforcement," the group said.
Criminal offence
The advisory group also expressed support for the the Immigration (Fiscal Sustainability and System Integrity) Amendment Bill, which sought to criminalise migrant exploitation.
"The bill will make it an offence to charge an employee (or potential employee) a fee in exchange for a job, irrespective of whether they have started employment, or whether they are in New Zealand or offshore," the group said.
"Currently the offence only captures situations where people are actively working in New Zealand where the employer is the one charging the fee. We support these changes."
Associate Police Minister Casey Costello, who appointed the advisory group in February, called migrant exploitation an "increasing challenge" for New Zealand.
"Migrant exploitation ... has been here for some time as I can attest from my work in this space before entering Parliament," Costello said.
"The good thing is that there's now far greater awareness of the issue and a real desire to address it."
Calling migrant exploitation a "horrible crime", Costello pointed towards a noticeable shift in awareness and a desire to take action against exploitation.
"The awareness raising, which things like the ministerial advisory group helps with, is really important," she said. "We need people to know what exploitation looks like so that they will report it ... so that vulnerable migrants can get help and those responsible can be prosecuted."
Asked how to tackle migrant exploitation, Costello highlighted measures similar to other areas of organised crime.
"[We need to] utilise our partnerships better, including our overseas partnerships, improving information sharing between government agencies, targeting the money that criminals make from exploitation and ensuring that agencies put a priority on investigating and prosecuting this criminal activity," Costello said.
"I'll have more to say about this after the MAG (ministerial advisory group) makes its final report next month.
"This will inform our wider transnational and serious organised crime strategy and action plan, part of which will be about addressing exploitation ... the flow of cash and ability for people to launder money.
"As a government, however, we are already looking to close some of those opportunities."
The advisory group is chaired by Steve Symon, a senior partner at Meredith Connell, and has submitted monthly reports since March, with the final report due in September.
