Fears trafficking victims are being deported from New Zealand

Otago Daily Times

15-06-2025

By Gill Bonnett of RNZ
Tearfund says it's shameful that trafficking victims are being deported from New Zealand when they should be protected.
The non-profit organisation has uncovered new figures which show the extent and nationalities of intercountry adoptions, through an unchecked pathway. There are fears some of them could be among trafficking victims, as some adoptive parents have exploited children by making them work for no wages or putting them into domestic servitude.
People trafficking complaints in New Zealand have risen more than 4000% since 2018 but prosecutions are rare, and some victims are known to have been deported.
Tearfund's head of advocacy, Claire Gray, said the government needs to take stock of the problem.
"We don't know the scale of the issue. We don't know who is being trafficked and who is being exploited. If you are in a situation of trafficking and exploitation of the any kind in New Zealand, it's very unclear how you raise the alarm about that safely and how you get out of that situation. And then there is very, very weak, minimal protections in place for people, for victim survivors of trafficking."
It is not known how many people leave the country without reporting that they were trafficked.
"I think a lot of potential victims of trafficking in New Zealand will be deported, so we will never know definitively," Gray said.
"I think it's almost like a shameful thing to say about our country, some of these people are the most vulnerable people - they've had their freedom taken away from them or compromised in some way - and our response to that is just to pop them on a plane and get rid of them as quickly as we can. It's really not good enough."
New trafficking legislation is needed which should include better protections for those who are abused or exploited, she said.
New Zealand has faced international criticism through the US Trafficking in Persons report on how it identifies trafficking, prosecutes it and helps victims once they are found. Intercountry adoptions
Fears have been raised about trafficking among a specific category of adoptions which occur overseas.
In other adoptions, Oranga Tamariki (OT) and the Family Court have roles in vetting and checking adoptive families before the children are placed in their care.
Tearfund's figures suggest most of the unchecked intercountry adoptions happen in Samoa, but also Kiribati, Congo and other countries.
They show in the last four years, about 2300 children had gained citizenship after being adopted from countries which have not ratified the Hague Convention.
Gray said the extent of any trafficking and exploitation among those children was unclear, and OT itself said it cannot say how many of its child uplifts had been adopted through the process, known as Section 17 for its place in the Adoption Act.
"The evidence that we've seen is that section where we have those intercountry adoptions, is actually being used as a pathway to traffick children to New Zealand for the purpose of exploiting them," she said. "So, that will be by far the minority of cases, but it still is a loophole that we believe should be safeguarded very urgently."
In departmental reports, officials reported INZ, OT and the NZ police were seeing 'increasing numbers' of children of all ages, particularly in the 18-21 age group, who have been adopted offshore and were in exploitative situations in New Zealand where they are 'coerced, threatened and deceived'.
Section 17 was used in New Zealand's most high-profile trafficking conviction - also the most recent (2020) and the only one for trafficking and enslavement - of Joseph Auga Matamata.
Matamata was convicted of enslaving 13 Samoan nationals and 10 counts of human trafficking between 1994 and 2019. His youngest victim was a 12-year-old boy he had adopted. His other victims were older and escaped his compound or returned home.
"One of the biggest impacts of this offending on them was they went home broken, beaten in spirit and ashamed, because for many of them they had been deported," Immigration NZ (INZ) said at the time.
Gray said despite the case and others raised publicly, most adoptions were genuine. The immigration pathway was helpful to families and should be honoured, she added, but better safeguards had to be put in place along with an immediate pause while that happened. Oranga Tamariki and Immigration New Zealand
OT said it has a role in adoptions when the child's country of origin is a contracting state of the Hague Convention.
"Oranga Tamariki only has formal intercountry adoption programmes with Hague Contracting States including Chile, Hong Kong, India, Philippines, Lithuania, and Thailand," said manager of Tamariki and Whānau Services Paula Attrill, in a written statement.
"These programmes are available for New Zealanders, following assessment and approval, to apply to adopt a child from."
In other adoptions, the process is carried out under the laws of the overseas country and outside the framework of the 1993 convention, she said.
"In some circumstances, we have partnered with non-Hague contracting states to work towards the development of arrangements that ensure safeguards are in place for the children involved."
OT has declined interview requests.
In a written statement, INZ said New Zealand had a whole-of-government approach to preventing and fighting people trafficking, and to providing help to victims.
"If it is determined the individual does not have a clear visa pathway to remain in New Zealand lawfully, we will start the deportation process," said its national compliance manager Fadia Mudafar.
"There is a formal process for a person liable for deportation to provide information about their personal circumstances, where they may disclose that they are a victim of trafficking.
"We recognise the courage it takes to share such experiences and approach each disclosure with sensitivity, respect, and a commitment to ensuring the individual's safety and dignity. Additionally, compliance officers are trained to detect trafficking indicators."
INZ gave the example of Matamata in which staff identified the potential trafficking, halted deportation action and referred the matter for further investigation.
"If concerns arise during deportation proceedings, the matter is immediately referred by the compliance officers to the investigations team," Mudafar said.
"MBIE works closely with a range of international and domestic partners across business, and civil society to prevent people trafficking in New Zealand. Where people trafficking does occur, we are committed to ensuring the welfare of victims is at the heart of our response and that offenders are prosecuted for their crimes."
It spelled out its activities, including: Offshore prevention and capacity building initiatives to uplift the capability of international partners to respond to people trafficking, and disruption activities with law enforcement to target people trafficking networks
Representing New Zealand at key international meetings such as the Bali Process on People Smuggling, Trafficking in Persons and Related Transnational Crime and the UN Convention against Transnational Organised Crime
Robust procedures to identify potential people trafficking risks across visa and verification processing
Delivery of training to frontline staff to help them identify indicators of people trafficking, particularly at the border
Suspected victims of trafficking can apply for a Victims of People Trafficking Visa (VoPT)
Support to both New Zealand citizens/residents and non-residents if the crime occurred in New Zealand
Victims can be certified by NZ Police. Certification grants access to health, welfare, and immigration support services.
"Officials recognise there are further opportunities to improve our sustainable support services to victims," said Mudafar.
"MBIE will continue to work with partners to uplift the support to victims in New Zealand."