A focus on meeting visa processing timeframes and volumes overrode migrant exploitation risk considerations at Immigration NZ, a new review has found.
It also found when staff raised concerns about the risks, leadership at the organisation failed to pay adequate attention.
The review into the administration of the Accredited Employer Work Visa (AEWV) was released today by the Public Service Commission.
An independent inquiry into the work visa scheme was ordered last year, Corazon Miller reports. (Source: 1News)
The review was announced in August last year by former Immigration Minister - Labour's Andrew Little - after an anonymous whistleblower came forward with allegations that claimed checks on employers were not happening, among other issues.
The review, led by Jenn Bestwick, aimed to determine whether Immigration NZ's administration of the scheme was carried out appropriately, with a focus on mitigating the risk of migrant exploitation and irregular migration.
Q+A asked the immigration minister whether the worker allegations were a sign of a much bigger problem. (Source: 1News)
It found the visa - introduced to address labour shortages after the pandemic - reduced the number of checks that immigration officers were required to do to maintain processing times, but the organisation's decision to change the setting was "reasonable in the circumstances".
"INZ did not adequately assess the risk and impact of these changes to speed up processing times, against the increased risk of visa system abuse.
"The focus on meeting visa processing timeframes and volumes overrode risk considerations.
"When INZ staff did raise concerns about the risks, leadership at INZ failed to pay adequate attention."
Bestwick said migrant exploitation wasn't new and no system expected to eliminate it entirely.
When it did happen however it resulted in “significant harm and abuse”.
“It is profound and extremely damaging.”
A statement from Immigration NZ said between July 27 2022 and June 30 2023, the visa scheme was exposed to an increased risk of exploitation by unscrupulous agents or employers, but the organisation had made and was continually making changes to improve the administration of the work visa scheme service.
Immigration NZ is part of the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).
Deputy Public Service commissioner Heather Baggott said the changes to the AEWV did not work as intended and Immigration NZ could have done more to minimise the risk of abuse of the system.
She said Immigration NZ should have assessed the risk before implementing changes and review the impact of the changes.
"Immigration NZ implemented, very quickly, a new model to accelerate immigration at a time [when] the country desperately needed skilled workers.
"While it was unscrupulous employers who exploited migrants coming into the country, Immigration NZ could have, and should have, done more to minimise the risk of that happening."
She said she expected MBIE chief executive Carolyn Tremain to continue to make improvements in line with recommendations in the review report.
Baggot said Tremain had assured her this would happen.
Tremain said the review had raised “some serious issues”.
She said INZ faced a significant challenge with a new policy and significant demand after Covid-19, and an almost entirely new team to implement the new policy.
“We could have done better.”
She said she and Alison McDonald of INZ absolutely accepted the reviews findings and committed to fixing the issues, and added that most employers with migrant workers did the right thing.
Little had previously received assurances from Immigration NZ that standard operating procedures were being followed, and said there was enough in the anonymous letter to prompt the review to seek clarity that processes for the visa were being undertaken thoroughly, especially in the case of the Accredited Employer Work Visa.
Those processes included checking an employer was a real business and had been operating for at least a year.
The visa was introduced in July 2022 by another former Immigration Minister - Michael Wood - as a way for employers to source foreign workers, especially to address labour shortages, which had proved problematic after the pandemic.
But the scheme had been criticised as being vulnerable to enabling migrant exploitation.
In August last year, ahead of Little's review announcement, TVNZ's Q+A profiled two Chinese workers who alleged they'd been mistreated and abandoned after paying more than $16,000 for jobs under the scheme.
Earlier this month it was revealed nearly 200 employers had had their licence to hire migrants revoked or suspended, and INZ was investigating 167 more who held licences under the scheme.
Immigration New Zealand's website describes the AEWV as the main temporary work visa in New Zealand, an employer-led work visa process in place to hire migrant workers.
It said it was designed to "ensure New Zealanders are first in line for jobs and makes it easier for employers to hire skilled migrants where genuine skill or labour shortages exist" and helped "combat migrant exploitation" by ensuring only employers who were accredited can hire migrant workers.
Immigration Minister responds
Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said the report highlighted serious issues, and she was disappointed appropriate risk assessments were not carried out by Immigration New Zealand from October 2022 to June 2023.
“I accept that the Ministry were under a great deal of pressure following the reopening of borders after Covid-19 and the unprecedented demand for migrant workers. This included having significant numbers of new staff, the merging of six previous visa types into one, and a new IT system that was not fully operational.”
Stanford said she had received assurances from Tremain that there had been significant improvements in risk assessments for AEWV applications and documenting decisions and that the feedback from visa processing and compliance staff has been taken seriously.
“I want to thank staff who did absolutely the right thing in raising their concerns. I have been clear with the Ministry that when significant risks are identified in our immigration system, appropriate action must be taken and that I must be advised."
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