Fu Hai and Zhao Yao arrived in New Zealand from China in March, having been promised steady construction work and high wages by an agent back in their home country.
They paid the agent roughly $16,000 — about 10 months' worth of their salaries in China — for an Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) to work for a NZ sub-contractor involved in Waikeria Prison's development of a new unit.
"They told me that New Zealand is looking for workers like us, and they pay really high wages and salaries — even higher than what we've earned in Japan and Singapore," Zhao said through a translator.
"[The agent told me] if we can stay in New Zealand working long-term, we'll have the opportunity to obtain residency and our wives and kids can come to New Zealand."
Q+A has seen the men’s documents. They both signed contracts with an Auckland-based company promising $25 an hour for a minimum of 30 hours of work every week.
But Fu and Zhao allege that, after just two months, they were suddenly told by the sub-contractor not to return to work while still being owed money for dozens of hours of work. Their boss also promptly stopped replying to their messages.
Fu said he couldn't believe it because he did all the work he was assigned to do.
"I was not a lazy worker. Without any warning, he just asked me to go away. I just cannot accept that," he said through a translator.
The pair are eligible to transfer their visa. But it hasn't proved easy.
Fu and Zhao claim they had their tax deducted from their pay by their former employer, but they say IRD has no record of them working in New Zealand. Zhao said the lack of that record meant, during an interview for another job, he was told he couldn't be recruited.
The sub-contractor didn't want to appear on camera. But, in a conversation over the phone with Q+A, he said his company had run out of money and he had stood down as company director.
Q+A asked him if he underpaid his staff, breached their employment contracts, failed to register them with the IRD and withheld tax without paying it. He didn't deny any of the allegations.
He has paid some money to his former workers and said he is committed to helping them. He also said he has brought in 12 workers from China under an AEWV.
Since Q+A began reporting this story, MBIE has opened two investigations into the sub-contractor who hired Fu and Zhao.
The main contractor at Waikeria Prison confirmed to Q+A that, in mid-May, it stopped working with the sub-contractor who employed the men. There is no accusation that the main contractor has been involved in the mistreatment of migrant workers.
'Mushrooming' of similar cases
Licensed immigration adviser Katy Armstrong said Zhao Yao and Fu Hai's story is common.
"We're seeing an absolute mushrooming of this.
"Immigration New Zealand will say what's happening is they're getting more reports. But those of us in the industry for a long time have never been exposed to this much."
The AEWV was introduced in July last year under then-Immigration Minister Michael Wood, off the back of former Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi's promise that New Zealand would "reset" its immigration system to emphasise high-wage and high-skilled migrants once borders reopened from Covid-19.
Under the AEWV scheme, employers can apply for accreditation to hire migrants on visas lasting up to three years.
It requires employers to pay migrants at least the New Zealand median wage, with exemptions. Accredited employers are also required to undergo a 'job check' where they must show a role has been advertised locally before being filled by a migrant.
Armstrong said the AEWV scheme was billed as a system "that would cut out or reduce migrant exploitation".
"We're seeing the reverse."
Since the visa was introduced, 77,000 migrants have come to New Zealand under the scheme, while 27,000 employers have earned accreditation.
Steve Watson, the head of the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's (MBIE) immigration compliance and investigations team, said about 900 complaints have been lodged across Immigration New Zealand and the Labour Inspectorate.
One hundred and sixty-four accredited employers are currently being investigated as a result of those complaints. Watson said the investigations can lead to the removal of accreditations or, in the most serious cases, prosecutions.
"Some of the complaints we've investigated through the immigration team [involves] people [who] arrive onshore and there's no job for them or they've been dismissed early on.
"We'd look into the circumstances of that dismissal and how they were issued the accreditation."
MBIE confirmed two employers have had their accreditation removed so far.
Watson said Immigration New Zealand has increased the number of staff dealing with complaints of migrant exploitation. He said some cases were quite complex and would take a while to investigate.
"We have two very dedicated teams… we're quite well-resourced," he said.
Immigration New Zealand also aims to audit 15% of accredited employers each year. In 2023 so far, about 2% have undergone a check.
But immigration adviser Armstrong said post-accreditation checks are not where the focus should be directed. She said more scrutiny needed to be placed at the application stage instead.
Armstrong said the Government had faced so much pressure after the borders had reopened to fill labour shortages that it came at the expense of thorough checks on both employers and employees hired under the AEWV.
However, she added most employers were doing the right thing and the scheme shouldn't be scrapped completely.
"If we discontinue it, we're going to have a massive number of very compliant employers who will be blocked from having access to the skills we need."
National's immigration spokesperson Erica Stanford blames the Government for introducing a scheme that left migrants "ripe for exploitation".
"Despite setting up a system that is more bureaucratic, has got more steps and more cost, they [the Government] have left the front and back door open.
"You will always have bad actors overseas and New Zealand who will look for an opening. They will look for weaknesses in the system."
She said elements of the visa "show promise" but "we need to move to a system that better checks migrants when they're coming in — verifying documentation and… verifying accredited businesses".
As for the number of migrants who have come in without the skills they say they have, "it's really hard to quantify the scale of this problem" because Immigration New Zealand "doesn't keep that level of detail", Stanford said.
"You only need to Google 'come to New Zealand' and it'll throw you up ads saying 'no English required', 'no qualifications required', 'no skill required' [or] 'pathway to residence'."
Immigration Minister: We're in a transition period
Immigration Minister Andrew Little said he wasn't sure of the extent of migrant worker exploitation on Government projects.
"Any migrant worker exploitation is appalling and totally unacceptable."
He said, before the AEWV was rolled out, the Government ensured it would be easier to report alleged migrant exploitation. Little said that was why there had been a spike in complaints recently.
"We always suspected that the level of migrant worker exploitation was hugely underreported. That has been borne out by the level of reporting we're now seeing. That is the system working and doing its job."
Newshub reports 150 complaints were made about migrant exploitation five years ago.
In 2021, after a new migrant exploitation hotline and web complaint tool was launched, that number jumped to 908. Last year, there were 905 complaints.
The Government also introduced a Migrant Exploitation Work Visa to allow people to leave their jobs while investigations are underway. MBIE said a small number of migrants have transferred to this visa.
"For those who are victims of migrant worker exploitation, we now have a very quick and easy way to get [them] off the accredited employer visa onto a different visa that facilitates them to be able to get other work and affords them that protection," Little said.
As the AEWV visa has only been in place for about a year, checks on employers and who they hired were still ramping up, he said.
When asked if the pressure of labour shortages has compromised the thoroughness of checking applications, Little said applicants are required to make a formal disclosure.
Making false disclosures is "a very serious matter", he said.
"I am satisfied with the measures we have in place and the protections that are afforded to workers.
"Migrant worker exploitation is going to happen. We need to make sure our response is effective and protects those people."
Little said New Zealand was still completing its transition away from low-wage migrants to attracting migrants with higher skills who will be paid higher wages.
In the meantime, Fu and Zhao are surviving the winter in Hamilton on money sent from their families back in China.
Zhao said he knew of many others in a similar situation.
"Some of their problems are even worse than ours. For example, one employee, right after they landed in New Zealand, they never met their employer. That's because the employer’s company actually did not exist."
Fu and Zhao said they don't want their loved ones to worry and, so far, they haven't had the heart to tell their families the truth.
Q+A is Public Interest Journalism funded by NZ On Air
SHARE ME