The Front Page: How a simple visa change became an immigration nightmare

Migrant workers face dire living conditions. Photo / Alex Burton

A scheme introduced by the Government last year was meant to end migrant exploitation while also making it easier for legitimate employers to hire staff.

But it has had quite the opposite effect. NZ Herald journalist Lincoln Tan has been reporting on dozens of cases of migrant workers who have been lured here under false pretences off the back of the launch of the Accredited Employer Work Visa scheme.

This scheme was introduced after Covid-19 to enable accredited employers to bring workers into the country faster than before.

“Pre-Covid, for an employer to get work visas to bring workers over required a lot of paperwork,” Tan tells The Front Page podcast.

“They had to show they were profitable and also that there were no New Zealanders who could do the job. This was done through advertising and other forms of proof to get permission to bring employees over from overseas. The whole idea of the accredited scheme was actually to speed things up post-Covid when there was a desperate need for workers.”

These changes had the desired effect, but they also had some unforeseen consequences that are now starting to come to light in the stories of migrants who have been lured here with promises of high-paying jobs that never materialise.

Tan says that a major problem with this system is that a very small percentage of the businesses are verified before being accredited.

“There are no checks,” says Tan

“Immigration doesn’t have the resources to check the 70,000 accredited employers they’ve granted the status to. Only a small percentage is being checked.”

One particularly harrowing story Tan has written tells of a group of 24 migrant workers who were crammed into a three-bedroom home only to be told recently that they would be evicted.

“This is not an isolated incident,” says Tan.

“They’re part of a bigger group of Indians and Bangladeshis. We’re looking at over a hundred spread across six properties. They were basically duped into here by dodgy agents back in their home country... Twenty-four people in one property is actually more luxurious. The worst case I’ve seen is 39 people in a three-bedroom house.”

• So what is the Minister of Immigration Andrew Little doing about this?
• How should the law change?
• What are opposition politicians offering?
• What do migrant communities want to see?
• And will this issue cost the Labour Party votes in the upcoming election?

To hear more about the tough circumstances these migrant communities are facing, listen to the full episode of The Front Page podcast.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. It is presented by Damien Venuto, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in business reporting who joined the Herald in 2017.

You can follow the podcast at iHeartRadio, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.