SPECIAL REPORT – by Selwyn Manning.
On Tuesday, March 30, we lodged a series of questions to the Minister of Immigration Kris Faafoi, seeking answers to allegations that 10 Chinese workers, who were detained in custody pending deportation orders, were in fact victims of a human trafficking scam.
Throughout last week, the ten workers’ lawyer, Matt Robson, and union advocate Mike Treen of Unite Union, had been racing against the clock, seeking to halt deportation orders that Immigration New Zealand officials were advancing – seemingly with haste.
Two days later (April 1), two of the ten workers in fact received their deportation orders and were en-route to Auckland International Airport, escorted by Police.
Then, as the Police vehicle neared Auckland Airport on George Bolt Memorial Drive, one of the two, Ning Yu ‘escaped’!
How? The Chinese worker simply unbuckled his seatbelt, opened the Police car’s unlocked rear door, and ran away. Apparently, back in China, Ning Yu is a marathon runner.
While a number of Police units (including from the Police Dog Section, and Police helicopter) searched unsuccessfully for him, Ning Yu took refuge in a tree near a Golf Course on Nixon Road, Mangere. Then, once the Police helicopter flew off, he wandered about Mangere throughout the early hours of the morning.
After dawn rose on April 2, Ning Yu noticed a Chinese man jogging. As he passed, Ning Yu spoke to him in Mandarin. They had a conversation. Ning Yu told him his predicament. The jogger convinced him to hand himself in to Police. He agreed, and made his way to Auckland Central Police.
On arrival, Ning Yu told Police he absconded because he wanted to collect some money owned to him; “So he could take it home with him”. He was arrested, and later appeared before the Courts charged with escaping Police custody.
The charge sheet states: “At approximately 1952hrs on Friday the 1st of April 2021, Police were dispatched by the Northern Communication centre to assist NZ Immigration in escorting two deportees to the Auckland Airport as their flight was scheduled to depart from Auckland to China later in the evening.
“Police arrived at the Mount Eden Correction facility and received into their custody Ning YU, the Defendant in this matter.
“Due to the demeanour and background of the Defendant, he was not handcuffed. The Defendant was seated at the back of the Police Vehicle.
“On the way to the Airport, as the vehicle approached Cyril Kay Road on George Bolt Memorial Drive, the Defendant opened the petrol [sic] vehicle door and escaped,” The charge sheet stated.
On Saturday April 3, Ning Yu appeared before the Courts in Auckland. While there, the Police charge of absconding was withdrawn. He was returned to Police custody pending renewed deportation orders.
***
At this juncture, it is worth checking this worker’s allegations.
Throughout the ordeal (since Immigration investigators identified Ning Yu and the other nine as illegal workers) Ning Yu’s position was simple. He insisted he wanted to stay in New Zealand to work and earn some money. The wages he earned, he intended to send home to China for his wife and child. Ning Yu believed he was owed wages by an employer in Auckland, and that he had not earned enough, yet, to cover the USD$20,000 he states he paid an individual in China – who had initially arranged to expedite his Visa application to enter New Zealand. Back then, after paying the agent, Ning Yu said it took two days for his Visa to be allocated to him.
If true, this suggests corruption. Remember New Zealand is regarded as the least corrupt country in the world, equal to Denmark. If agents are demanding money from hopeful foreign workers, securing entry visas within days, and on arrival at Auckland Airport, these people are scooted off to work for employers as black labour – then that situation questions the corruption-free status New Zealand enjoys. And that, is clearly a public and national interest issue.
The seriousness of these allegations also draw forward concerns that New Zealand Government’s practice of out-sourcing Immigration New Zealand visa applications to agencies inside China, may have been corrupted.
Such concerns, in a democracy such as New Zealand, demand an expectation of thorough and transparent investigation. This case however, draws forward examples of bureaucratic control, silence, and an obvious ministerial convention being observed that prevents open and accountable oversight.
Far from answering allegations of serious crimes, questions remain unanswered.
Questions such as these:
- Who is the individual (the agent) that received approximately USD$20k from Ning Yu, the agent who allegedly managed, in two days, to acquire a Visa for this person to enter New Zealand?
- Who was the initial ‘employer’ that received Ning Yu and the other nine workers, and put them to work illegally in Auckland?
- Why were there no employment records held for Ning Yu and the nine other Chinese workers?
- Why were there no IRD numbers? No tax records?
- How many dodgy employers were Ning Yu (and the nine other workers) handed over to, to be exploited, paid under the table, under the minimum wage, without holiday pay, without health and safety protection, without the rights that a legitimate working visa demands?
- Why were New Zealand Government employment and labour inspectors prevented by Immigration New Zealand, and the Ministry of Business Innovation and Enterprise (MBIE), from interviewing the ten Chinese workers about their situation?
- Does this bureaucratic refusal-to-interview prevent an investigation from taking place into allegations of human trafficking and illegal employment by New Zealand-based companies and contractors?
- Do not the ten workers come under the protection of New Zealand Government’s Migrant Exploitation Policy?
- What is the definition of human trafficking that applies to victims of this type of crime in New Zealand?
On that last question, the United Nations defines human trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of a person by deceptive, coercive or other improper means for the purpose of exploiting that person.
The United Nations definition appears relevant to the allegations in this case.
Despite the concerns as noted above, the Ministry of Business Innovation and Enterprise (MBIE)’s ‘Delegated Decision Maker’ replied to the Chinese workers’ lawyer, Matt Robson, on Thursday April 1 stating:
“Under the immigration delegations, the delegated decision makers have the authority to make certain ministerial intervention decisions on behalf of the Associate Minister of Immigration. I have carefully considered your representations. I advise I am not prepared to intervene in this case. As section 11 of the Immigration Act 2009 applies, I am not obliged to give reasons for my decision. Your clients will be deported from New Zealand at the discretion of Immigration New Zealand.”
***
Back to Thursday April 1, Minister of Immigration Kris Faafoi’s office continued to resist answering specific questions, electing rather to issue this statement:
‘Investigations are continuing and the Minister does not consider it appropriate to comment further than the statement he has provided to other media requests, which is:
“Ministers do not get involved in enforcement. That is an operational matter.
“We have been assured that the appropriate processes have been followed and Immigration NZ has not found any evidence of trafficking.
“Agencies are satisfied further investigations around employment and immigration breaches can be carried out without the need for the men to remain in New Zealand.
“As investigations are continuing, and this is an operational matter, it would not be appropriate to comment further.”’
The questions that were put to Minister Faafoi, prior to Ning Yu escaping from Police custody included:
Should New Zealand Police be heading an investigation into alleged human trafficking?
12: If so, has NZ Police been approached by you as Minister of Immigration or by your office or by Immigration New Zealand? And, is an investigation underway by New Zealand Police on this element of this issue?
The lawyer acting for the ten workers found there were:
a: No written employment agreements;
b: No wage and time records;
c: No paid holidays;
d: No legal wages;
e: No training in health and safety measures on construction sites.
13: Do you accept that the above points (a – e) are an accurate assessment of the ten workers situation? If not, why not? If so, does this suggest that they fall within the considerations of the Migrant Exploitation Policy? And if so, as suspected exploited foreign workers, do they have the right to seek recourse via New Zealand’s judicial process, and does this recourse halt deportation proceedings from occurring?
Regarding answers to these questions, the silence from the Beehive prevailed.
For the record, through their lawyer, Matt Robson (a former minister in the Labour-Alliance coalition government) and union representative Mike Treen (of Unite Union), the ten workers allege they:
- Were recruited by agents in China to go to New Zealand to work
- Paid the agents between USD$15,000 – $30,000
- Received their Visas within two to six days of applying
- Were met by agents (on arrival) at Auckland Airport
- Were taken to prearranged accommodation in Auckland
- Worked for various ‘employers’ at building sites around Auckland
- Never had employment contracts, wage or time records, or paid tax
- Were paid in cash
- Were put to work by the employers without work visas.
In a letter to Minister Faafoi dated April 1, 2021, Robson and Treen asserted that the above allegations demanded a robust investigation – that this situation meets the New Zealand Government’s Migrant Exploitation Policy, and, as such, the ten workers are witnesses to an alleged breach of New Zealand’s immigration and employment laws, and also human trafficking crimes.
They questioned why the Minister Kris Faafoi (who is also Minister of Justice) was determined to be satisfied with Immigration NZ officials who insisted to deport the workers with haste.
Minister Faafoi’s response, as noted above is, that it is an operational matter and that he is satisfied that Immigration has investigated the situation, including the allegations, and found no substance to them. The Minister was also satisfied that New Zealand’s employment and labour agencies can continue to investigate allegations of employment law breaches even after the ten workers have been deported back to China.
Also, for the record, the ten Chinese workers were scheduled for deportation on five flights to China leaving New Zealand between April 1st to 15th, 2021.
CONCLUSION:
The New Zealand public seldom has an appetite for bureaucracy. It is especially intolerant of government officials operating behind a shroud when issues of public and national interest are in question.
In reviewing this case it is clear, the allegations underlying this case demand an open and transparent investigation be held – even if that investigation should unearth cases of corruption and human trafficking – victims of exploitation between the People’s Republic of China and New Zealand. To avoid public scrutiny to the satisfaction of a reasonable standard, well, that is a national disgrace.
***
Ref. Questions from Selwyn Manning to Minister of Immigration Kris Faafoi, dated Tuesday, March 30, 2021.
For an article/editorial for EveningReport.nz (an associate member of the New Zealand Media Council) and syndicated outlets, I request the Minister of Immigration, Kris Faafoi, answer the following questions regarding the ten Chinese nationals detained (nine in Mt Eden Corrections Facility and one in Police custody) pending deportation proceedings. Thanks in advance for your considerations:
Regarding Employment Status (I ask this as it appears this has relevance in determining whether the ten fall under Migrant Exploitation Policy as exploited individuals):
1: Did the 10 workers (as individuals) have employment contracts while working in New Zealand?
2: Did their employer calculate tax PAYE deductions from their gross pay and pay Inland Revenue Department for money earned in New Zealand?
3: Did their employers calculate the cost of labour on their respective company accounts?
4: If not, is this a breach of New Zealand employment law and should this be investigated? If it should be investigated, what agency should conduct this investigation?
5: Do you believe under the currently known circumstances, that Mt Eden Corrections Facility is an appropriate place for the ten to reside pending the outcome of any inquiries?
6: On the facts so far, do you feel the 10 workers have potentially been exploited?
7: If you do not feel they have been exploited, why do you feel this is so?
8: If you do feel they have potentially been exploited, who or what do you feel is culpable? And, do you accept that they ten workers are key witnesses in an alleged human trafficking ring?
The lawyer representing the ten workers, the Honourable Matt Robson, said on Radio New Zealand’s Checkpoint programme (March 30, 2021) that he believed the ten workers are victims of exploitation by a human trafficking ring.
9: Do you believe this element has been satisfactorily investigated, and if so why?
10: If not, what should happen now?
11: Should New Zealand Police be heading an investigation into alleged human trafficking?
12: If so, has NZ Police been approached by you as Minister of Immigration or by your office or by Immigration New Zealand? And, is an investigation underway by New Zealand Police on this element of this issue?
The lawyer acting for the ten workers found there were:
a: No written employment agreements;
b: No wage and time records;
c: No paid holidays;
d: No legal wages;
e: No training in health and safety measures on construction sites.
13: Do you accept that the above points (a – e) are an accurate assessment of the ten workers situation? If not, why not? If so, does this suggest that they fall within the considerations of the Migrant Exploitation Policy? And if so, as suspected exploited foreign workers, do they have the right to seek recourse via New Zealand’s judicial process, and does this recourse halt deportation proceedings from occurring?
14: Has the Minister of Foreign Affairs been alerted (corresponded with) to this issue by your office, if so, what was the nature of that correspondence?
Thank you for your attention to the above questions. Your consideration is appreciated, and I request, that due the urgency relating to the situation and potential deportation of the ten workers, that your answers be given a priority.
Sole, kefe.
But those are great questions. The reality is the more time Kris Faafoi has to manoeuvre the more he becomes rotten with power. Power taxes people, we’ve all seen the before and after photos of Obama. Just rotten.
Asides from human trafficking there are syndicates taking advantage of a coordinated effort to sideline regulators. I just don’t believe for a second that anyone of those regulators don’t want to advance their careers on the back of silencing the question of human trafficking kiwi style.
China shouldn’t even come into it. If Bejing becomes uncooperative and pushes sanctions against New Zealand then we can just cut ties with them and enforce human rights.
Although the power balance has obviously shifted towards business for the first time a separate economic system is going to have to come out and justify a living wage and it’s going to have to be paired with more direct representation, new markets and a new security provided by NZDF.
Security is important because I believe that near future wars won’t be fought all at once but by proxocy and insurgencies and a lot of domestic tensions that could bring us to a bloody revolution or even civil war.
A lot of those unanswered immigration questions could easily poor fuel on the fire with anti New Zealand sentiment, organisation and state sponsorship. This isn’t a game of checkers. These are variables that turn human rights abuses into much larger conflict.
So Kris will just have to respond with the usual fluff and Mike Treen and perhaps others are just going to have to reveal the extent of treachery in backing human trafficking one way or another.
I mean God damn it Kris all he had to do was reaffirm New Zealand’s commitment to human rights.
‘China shouldn’t even come into it. If Bejing becomes uncooperative and pushes sanctions against New Zealand then we can just cut ties with them and enforce human rights’
That would provide a very ‘interesting’ scenario, since China is the biggest customer for most of NZ exports, and is the biggest supplier of goods sold in NZ.
Oh, maybe you are living on a different planet from me, the one on which NZ is a major land mass with a large population of well-educated, highly ambitious people in an advanced industrial state, and China is a small group of islands with a low population of semi-peasants we can dispense with at a moment’s notice. 🙂
Those are even more difficult questions with even more difficult answers. No matter what track we take either the trade route to foreign policy or the diplomatic route they are both on a lower track with lower GDP growth. That’s just the way capitalism operates, it seeks out the lowest wage costs.
There’s no easy answers and all I can say is these guys can’t be put in jail.
What is the point of the ‘$20 living wage’ when so many jobs are now cash. Many reports of this, and reports of people who are NZ citizens unable to get work at these so called high demand jobs because our work system has already moved to an Asian model not Western for work. AKA exploitative and restrictive and favouring those who are less likely to ‘dob’ in their employers scams.
Yeah well benefit rates should in theory be sufficient enough to price exploitation out of the markets. Obviously we need new markets.
The residency ‘bonus’ means that people will still be better off by paying up to 1 million to come to NZ because just superannuation alone for just one parent, is a 1 million tax payer perk. Then when you work out all the free health care and schooling for the entire family, (plus being able to on-sell ‘marriages’ etc), you can see that our entire immigration system is well worth the gamble of sending off some youngster to provide the initial visa and start the ball rolling.
If new markets aren’t found then New Zealand will end up carrying a whole bunch of empty commercial and residential properties and way to much debt.
There are massive headwinds for GDP growth and property prices. We just have to use Covid19 as a tool to fix everything.
New markets were found, green technology and advances in food and medicine (and the combination of theses). Sadly NZ favours low level degrees and slave labour and profit led education for peanut wages and overseas led neoliberal managers who seem to prioritise their individual bonus and other companies over the ones they are running, which is why our productivity and most measures in social terms (educational standards, hospital beds) are dropping. Example Fonterra laid off their research and development staff while pursuing the China/South America partnerships which were ultimately a disaster and lost Fonterra market share and reputation as well as the pushed under carpet, dead and injured babies.
Being an overstayer for 18 years, buy your mortgage free home in one of the richest parts of Auckland from your cash painting business, have kids who get the best education and sports from NZ that increasingly Kiwi kids actually don’t get and can’t afford anymore and favouring those kids with money, why wouldn’t you come to NZ, set up cash business and overstay.h ttps://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/teenage-kiwi-fears-deportation-because-parents-are-overstayers/JV5ZNSD74TGTYTDNIIWVNBKYAA/
As per that article the woke, media and government and social services bang on about how vulnerable the children of overstayers are… meanwhile in the same universe it appears that it’s NZ born children to NZ born parents that seem to have zero support from the NZ system. Nobody cares a damn about them and it shows. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/398171/auckland-teen-was-kidnapped-and-tortured-court-hears https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/305949/child-who-has-lived-in-van-has-message-for-pm
In fact NZ likes to reward foreign drugs smugglers with NZ residency while the growing victims of that are all around us in our communities.
That is how sick NZ has become as a society and why I despise the woke so much who are more interested in massive help for middle class and wealthy overseas visa holders and overstayers and mostly for their own private gain support them, than the poor Kiwis who are begging on the streets, living in cars and teenagers who are randomly discovered in bins https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/398171/auckland-teen-was-kidnapped-and-tortured-court-hears because nobody is looking out for them or bodies undiscovered in our uni halls from our business led education. https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/09/25/new-zealand-student-dead-two-months-university/
So lets put all our efforts into cash Chinese builders and increasing their rights in NZ rather than looking around at the seriously bad signals that are under our noises (but due to not giving lobby groups and politicians private money like the Chinese builders), are ignored.
You want to live in a house built by slaves? Didn’t work out to well for
the Pyramids of Giza.
Anyone who has done any delving into the way things are done in NZ knows that corruption, lies and ineptitude reign supreme at all levels, and the art of governance is to pretend it just ain’t so, and to avoid responsibility wherever possible.
Whether Kris Faafoi is capable of exhibiting the required level of avoidance of responsibility is yet to be seen.
As for the Chinese workers, of course they were exploited. That has been the case since the western world first discovered the large pool of impoverished people early in the nineteenth century and began shipping them to places where Europeans we reluctant to work for shit wages under terrible conditions.
“Anyone who has done any delving into the way things are done in NZ knows that corruption, lies and ineptitude reign supreme at all levels, and the art of governance is to pretend it just ain’t so, and to avoid responsibility wherever possible.”
Ae. And corruption figures are pretty much based on what ‘officials’ provide.
For a decade or so, although we are among the least corrupt, the difference is that in lil ole NuZull that punches above its weight, corruption is covert, whereas in those there them “shithole” nations, it’s out in the open.
The good thing is, that “art of governance” is beginning to look like a nasty little daub on a sheet of toilet paper.
I think I prefer overt corruption. At least the plebs know where they stand
Faafoi ,yes man,waste of space, joke minister, embarrassment par excellence. Clear example of Jacinda’s judgement of political skills required for her cabinet. OMG what’s it gonna take for kiwis to realise what a useless self serving government of overpaid talking heads we have. All PR no substance.
Maybe make sure that immigration agents in countries such as China and India are actually NZers, and not people subcontracted to do the work. ie open to rampant corruption. This has been going on for a long time. Name and shame and crack down on foreign companies and business owners who are exploiting workers. In our country they play by our rules – shape up or ship out.
Nice idea if we were talking 20 years ago. If you think NZers (i.e. PRs and Citizens) are not involved in much of it, you’re fooling yourself.
Inaction has allowed it all to have become quite sophisticated, and even last time I looked at the MBIE website (admitedly a while ago), they were still encouraging vertical integration of things like shitty PTEs, Labour Hire companies, security companies and other exploiters with immigration ‘advisors’.
The horse has bolted and it’s all working as designed.
And now – the good (Robsons, McClymonts, a couple of Singh’s and others) are tarred with the same brush as the very ugly.
There are some solutions of course. Just not ones ‘officials’ or Munsters are prepared to take
They always knew that as they got migrants in to do immigration work then it would be too tempting for them not to prioritise their own people or their own wallets.
AKA Kiribati immigration staff granted Kiribati nations more visas if they were Kiribati themselves. Apparently the majority of the immigration staff are migrants and the majority of vehicle licensing (aka identification via drivers licenses) are migrants. That change has been rapid and now creating a culture of processing that do not reflect NZ and clearly opening up the entire system to massive frauds or which with the absence of oversight will not be easily detected. No questions seemed to be asked why so many people in NZ seem to not meet the criteria once granting residency, turning to crime, and can’t work in NZ without breaking NZ laws.
the Immigration Amendment Act (2015) only has a paltry fine of $100k (when recruitment agencies are bringing in a lot of workers each paying up to $50k, what sort of deterrent is that?) , how many employers have been deported who were found guilty of exploitation within 10 years of getting NZ residency/citizenship, my guess is none, and how many migrant employers or migrant controlled management continue with multiple ERA cases agains them while becoming extremely rich (CHCH liquor baron).
You just need to liquidate a company or say a worker is a contractor, to not to pay them appropriately and try to weasel out of ERA prosecution. Just banning employers 1 year of not having access to migrant labour once proved to exploit them, is pathetic.
Great article and Sam’s comment makes sense .
I thought no one could be worse than Ian Lees Galloway in immegration but I was wrong . Faafoi could give master classes .
They’re better than the alternative @Trev – which is somethink we’re all supposed to be thankful for (in this space, going forward) apparently. Except there’s a shock or two on the horizon, and thankfully we’ll still get the gummint we deserve – unless of course ‘fishinsy and fektivniss’ is applied to the electoral commission before ’23.
And although Faafoi is due for his mid-life crisis and as useless as tits on a bull, he’s not prone to the temptations of a young ambitious filly who should have known better. Unfortunately, although there were one or two better options (including an Allan, and even a McNulty despite their supposed inexperience), f-f-f-f-F-aaa.f-f-f-f-Fa-aaaaa-f-f-f-Foi is also one of the teacher’s pets.
The natives are getting restless – as they should be
Immigration is a Ponzi in NZ. The only way to stop a Ponzi is to expose it, and stop those putting money into the scheme from doing so, let it collapse and end the pain for those in the Ponzi about to put more money in. I mean by this the workers who are putting money into third party hands to get NZ permanent residency and move their entire family to NZ (or start one here) on the backs of temporary visas like student and work visas.
The only way to stop our Ponzi immigration is to call a complete halt on new immigration applications while the government get to grips with why NZ productivity is so low, why so many exploiters are employing migrants and getting away with it repeatedly, why NZ allows so many temporary visas and people working here for years on ‘student or temp visas’ with all their family also able to piggy back on it and have children here, why new migrants to NZ are taking up 50% of the labour inspectorate time with exploiting more migrants, why so many migrants are turning to crime in NZ and why NZ does nothing about it, why more than one in three households are contributing nothing to New Zealand’s tax take, why 40 per cent – receive more in tax credits and other benefits than they pay in tax. Why housands more are neutral contributors, or are close to it…. and how sustainable is that going forward with more Asian migrant pensioners in NZ than Maori or Pacific Island pensioners, why NZ is 100 billion in debt…. NZ mass immigration experiment for the last 15 years does not seem to be working for continuing a social democracy…
The reality that doesn’t seem to have hit the woke yet, is that 3 million people able to access a country with 60 million people’s workforce and social welfare system is completely different from countries with 1.3 billion India, 1.3 billion, China or even the Phillipines with 100 million people and all without a functioning social welfare system coming to NZ a country of 5 million….. and it’s just struck them, that the crazy gravy train that has been going to 15 years plus, is not exactly working as the neoliberals and woke seem to think it should aka multiple crisis everywhere in NZ caused by huge insatiable demand.
If the woke truely cared about the migrants they would be stoping them coming at the source and giving up their money to the people to come to NZ by banning the visas in the first place. Then there is nothing for the human traffickers to sell.
(Apart from it’s now much easier to sail to NZ, and dump drugs, contraband and people on our beaches and have the inside help to manage it – government have even set up a hotline to report).
In short government need to stop the trafficking rings, but not by allowing the (willing) trafficked to stay in NZ – they should give evidence from their own countries and the money profits removed by NZ courts and fines from he traffickers and those proceeds of crime, and dispersed back to those who can prove they gave the money to them.
I agree.
We have only started to scratch off the scab of actual corruption in New Zealand.
It is always denied by those who benefit the most from it.
Human and Sex trafficking, Goods smuggling, exploitation, ransoming, extortion and mafioso techniques are very prevalent in many State organisations, all paid for, and managed knowably, by Government Ministries.
State Sponsorship, through Piracy, in the Pacific region is a growing issue and a major moral failure, which has started to be revealed, by Covid19.
Many Civilian investigators, like Bellingcat, around the world, are focusing on New Zealand’s role in the Pacific, its role in upholding State Sponsored piracy and it is truly endemic.
Where is the actual enforcement bit? There is no point in having laws if they’re not enforced at the front-end.
Having to go to a minister tells you a lot??
Something is not working properly on the frontline.
” Why were New Zealand Government employment and labour inspectors prevented by Immigration New Zealand, and the Ministry of Business Innovation and Enterprise (MBIE), from interviewing the ten Chinese workers about their situation? ”
God strewth!
Am I to understand The Ministry for Everything’s INZ and The Ministry for Everything’s Labour Inspectorate are at odds?
If so, that’s progress (/sarc). But seriously – it is
With the lack of intervention from the so-called responsible Munsters, we should be grateful if they start tearing each other apart – it might go someway to getting change. And now I think about it, Astoria has closed, so, at least in Wellington, until they find somewhere else to be gorgeous, pissing in each other’s pockets might be a bit harder.
Ning Yu,… a marathon runner, athlete, and an honest yet naïve immigrant… should we treat them like this?
He could have been George Wilder, another freedom loving individual… but he chose not to be…
https://nzhistory.govt.nz/george-wilder-escapes-from-new-plymouth-jail
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wilder_(criminal)
I wish he would have, but glad for his sake he didn’t.
We need to be treating these folks much more decently.
He paid $20k and knew he was robbing a kiwi of a job…. victim, yes, but not innocent?
Immigration New Zealand in China has contracted their visa operations out to a private company VFS Global which increases the risk of corruption.
This would explain the two day visa.
Through handling visa applications for my wife’s relatives I know that VFS employees are certainly incompetent and do not understand how New Zealand law works.
They twice declined my sister-in-law’s visitor applications for absolutely no reason. When I challenged them and told them I would write to the Minister of Immigration they made a reconsidered and granted the applications.
Fortunately they do not know that Kris Faafoi is now Minister of Immigration.
@Stevie, Outsourcing is another lazy and corruption led innovation from neoliberalism. You needed to put in an ‘extra’s sum to ‘process’ the visa successfully aka bribe, quickly. Therefore ensuring honest migrants can’t get to NZ but corrupt ones, can.
Has anyone noticed how the Chinese embassy has NOT raced in to assist its citizens in trouble here?
Contrast this to the outcry over the arrest of Meng Wanzhou in Canada.
So the Chinese government ignores ten construction workers in trouble but is very worried about the Deputy Head of Huawei.
Socialism with Chinese characteristics indeed!
Even China knows that the 10 Chinese builders willingly took part in the visa scam.
PRC have 1.3 billion people and a plethora of scams and corrupt system to control – this won’t be any sort of priority – especially when it suits them to keep the drugs (pre cursor drug supply chains are mostly from China that drug traffickers rely on for the chemicals to make profitable drugs as methamphetamine and fentanyl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuancheng_Group https://apnews.com/article/4f0a4ca93cc2fee94d386efb13db31a0) and cash labour coming to weaken the West and make it easier to buy up assets there https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/new-zealanders-urged-to-help-protect-borders-from-drug-smugglers/LZC52UZUFQQJOGVWTLBP5JOCVE/.
Who needs nuclear weapons for security when you can destroy the West pretty easily just through drugs and shifting all supply chains to your own country so when Covid hit, the so-called-knowledge based countries couldn’t even produce a protective mask easily and had to use shit that didn’t work https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/apr/19/hospital-leaders-hit-out-government-ppe-shortage-row-escalates-nhs https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/415623/beggars-belief-that-ppe-would-fail-waitemata-dhb-nurse
How come TDB has nothing to say about PIKE RIVER?
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